What is the Contribution of the Theory of Redistribution Systems to the Theory of Corruption?

Tomáš Otáhal (), Palát Milan () and Petr Wawrosz
Additional contact information
Palát Milan: Department of Territorial Studies, Faculty of Regional Development and International Studies, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic

Review of Economic Perspectives, 2013, vol. 13, issue 2, 92-107

Abstract: Scholars making economic policy recommendations to resolve corruption problem use several approaches, the most dominant of which are the principal-agent and rent-seeking theories. In this paper, we argue that the principal-agent theory has problems to account for the environment in which the agents offering and accepting corruption operate, and explain the importance of agents for survival of their environment. The rent-seeking theory, on the other hand, finds it difficult to establish socially effective legislation and ways to determine the barriers to entry that motivate agents to behave corruptly. Both problems, however, are vital for solving the problem of corruption. Lacking the knowledge of the agent’s environment (system) and their significance for survival of the system, the theory cannot define incentives that would discourage the agent from acting in a corrupted way. If the rent-seeking theory does not determine the barriers to entry that motivate agents to behave corruptly, it cannot determine the proper legislation that would deter corrupt behaviour and lead to economic development. For these reasons we investigate if both problems can be explained and solved within the alternative theory of redistribution systems and its part - the theory of parallel redistribution games.

Keywords: Corruption; redistribution system; parallel redistribution game; game theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/revecp-2013-0003 (text/html)

Related works:
Working Paper: What is the contribution of the theory of redistribution systems to the theory of corruption? (2012)
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:vrs:reoecp:v:13:y:2013:i:2:p:92-107:n:3

DOI: 10.2478/revecp-2013-0003

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economic Perspectives is currently edited by Antonín Slaný

More articles in Review of Economic Perspectives from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().