Cultural persistence in corruption, economic growth, and the environment

Dimitrios Varvarigos

Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 2023, vol. 147, issue C

Abstract: Evidence that attributes current environmental outcomes to historical and cultural origins has gained momentum in recent years. In this study, I construct a model to demonstrate why the relation between economic growth and environmental quality hinges on the deeply rooted cultural traits that govern attitudes towards corruption. Specifically, I show that the cultural transmission of the traits that determine the corruptibility of public officials, who are entrusted with the inspection and reporting of firms’ emissions, leads to history-dependant outcomes. It sets in motion either a vicious circle of corruption, high pollution and low economic growth, or a virtuous circle where corruption does not infringe environmental policy, pollution is lower and economic growth is higher. These outcomes have major policy implications.

Keywords: Corruption; Cultural transmission; Economic growth; Pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165188922002937
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:147:y:2023:i:c:s0165188922002937

DOI: 10.1016/j.jedc.2022.104590

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control is currently edited by J. Bullard, C. Chiarella, H. Dawid, C. H. Hommes, P. Klein and C. Otrok

More articles in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().