Corruption and trust in political institutions in sub-Saharan Africa

Emmanuelle Lavallée, Mireille Razafindrakoto () and François Roubaud
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Emmanuelle Lavallée: LEDA-DIAL - Développement, Institutions et Modialisation - LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LEDa - Laboratoire d'Economie de Dauphine - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Mireille Razafindrakoto: DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme

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Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of corruption on the extent of trust in political institutions using a rich collection of comparable data provided by the Afrobarometer surveys conducted in 18 sub-Saharan African countries. More specifically, we set out to test the "efficient grease" hypothesis that corruption can strengthen citizens' trust since bribe paying and clientelism open the door to otherwise scarce and inaccessible services and subsidies, and that this increases institutional trust. Our findings reject this theoretical argument. We show that corruption never produces trust-enhancing effects regardless of the evaluation of public service quality. The results reveal how perceived and experienced corruption impact negatively, but differently, on citizens' trust in political institutions. The adverse effect of perceived corruption decreases with the fall in public service quality, whereas the negative effect of experienced corruption decreases as public service quality increases.

Keywords: Trust; Corruption; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01765960v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Published in CSAE Conference 2008 - Economic Development in Africa, 2008, Oxford, United Kingdom. pp.21

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Working Paper: Corruption and trust in political institutions in sub-Saharan Africa (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01765960

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