Death takes no bribes: Impact of perceived corruption on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions at combating COVID-19

Vincenzo Alfano, Salvatore Capasso, Salvatore Ercolano and Rajeev Goel

Social Science & Medicine, 2022, vol. 301, issue C

Abstract: Corruption is considered in the literature as an activity with several externalities and spillover effects. Adding to the recent research on the corruption-COVID-19 nexus, we study the impact of corruption on coronavirus cases. High perceived levels of corruption have been proven to lead to lower institutional trust, and hence possibly to lower levels of citizen compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as lockdowns, imposed by the authorities during the first wave of the pandemic to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Applying quantitative analysis with the use of hybrid models, we find that in countries with higher levels of perceived corruption, across alternative corruption measures, more COVID-19 cases are observed, ceteris paribus. This suggests that corruption has a detrimental effect on the spread of COVID-19, and that countries experiencing higher levels of corruption should pay extra attention when implementing NPIs.

Keywords: Corruption; COVID-19; Non-pharmaceutical interventions; Stringency measures; Coronavirus; Pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 H12 I18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114958

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