Staff Rotation as an Anti-Corruption Policy in China and in Germany: An Experimental Comparison

Bühren Christoph ()
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Bühren Christoph: University of Kassel, Institute of Economics, Nora-Platiel-Straße 4, 34127Kassel, Germany

Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), 2020, vol. 240, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: We conducted bribery experiments in China and in Germany to analyze the effect of staff rotation on corruption. After being bribed, Chinese and German subjects in the role of public officials less often reciprocated and instead behaved more often opportunistically when matched to strangers compared to partners. Thus, staff rotation reduced the public officials´ propensity to behave corruptly in our experiment. German subjects in the role of firms anticipated this behavior: In stranger matching, their frequency of bribe-giving was lower than in partner matching, and if they bribed, the bribe value was significantly lower when staff rotation was introduced. For Chinese subjects in the role of firms, this effect of our anti-corruption policy was not significant. We discuss the role of social norms, such as reciprocity and trust, to explain our results.

Keywords: Corruption; staff rotation; repeated games; strangers and partners; China and Germany; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D62 D72 D73 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:240:y:2020:i:1:p:1-18:n:4

DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2018-0036

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