The trickster’s legacy: The folklore roots of corruption

Jean-Baptiste Marigo and Laurent Weill
Additional contact information
Jean-Baptiste Marigo: LARGE - Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg
Laurent Weill: LARGE - Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg, EM Strasbourg - École de Management de Strasbourg = EM Strasbourg Business School - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg, UK - Univerzita Karlova [Praha, Česká republika] = Charles University [Prague, Czech Republic] = Université Charles [Prague, Republique tchèque]

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: This study examines the role of oral traditions in shaping corruption. Using firm-level data on a large sample of 82,922 firms covering 287 cultural societies in 125 countries, we analyze how the representation of antisocial behavior in folklore is associated with corruption. Our findings reveal that societies with folklore portraying antisocial behaviors as successful tend to exhibit higher levels of corruption, while those with oral traditions emphasizing the negative outcomes of such behaviors experience lower corruption. By distinguishing demand-and supply-side corruption channels, we document that folklore is associated with variations in bribe-related decisions, both for firms that are initiators and targets. Thus, our work contributes to the understanding of deeprooted cultural determinants of corruption.

Keywords: Culture; Folklore; Corruption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05-05
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05615276v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Journal of Comparative Economics, 2026, ⟨10.1016/j.jce.2026.04.004⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-05615276v1/document (application/pdf)

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:hal:journl:hal-05615276

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2026.04.004

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().