Who Pays Bribes? Gender, Education, and Petty Corruption in Mexico, 2011-2023

Alejandra Villegas and Heidi J. Smith
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Alejandra Villegas: Department of Economics, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico
Heidi J. Smith: Department of Economics, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico

Working Paper Series Sobre México from Sobre México. Temas en economía

Abstract: Who pays bribes, and what does that reveal about gendered encounters with the state? Using seven waves of Mexico's National Survey on Government Quality and Impact (2011-2023), this article shows that petty corruption is not experienced evenly across citizens. Women are about 57 percent less likely than men to report paying a bribe in public procedures, while university-educated respondents are about 37 percent more likely. We test whether these patterns are explained by a supply-access-sanction mechanism linking women's education, women's presence in elected municipal office, and state fiscal capacity. Municipal female political access does not reduce reported bribery exposure overall, does not robustly moderate the gender gap, and is not activated by state fiscal capacity. The null survives logit, threshold, and quadratic specifications. Larger municipalities show higher exposure, but scale does not activate the representational mechanism. Petty bribery exposure appears driven less by women's descriptive representation than by gendered, unequal patterns of contact with the administrative state.

JEL-codes: D73 H83 I24 J16 O54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-07-02
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