Death takes no bribes: Impact of perceived corruption on the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions at combating COVID-19. (May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alfano, Vincenzo; Capasso, Salvatore; Ercolano, Salvatore; Goel, Rajeev K.
• Is Part Of: Social science & medicine. Volume 301(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Subjects: Corruption -- COVID-19 -- Non-pharmaceutical interventions -- Stringency measures -- Coronavirus -- Pandemic; NPI Non-pharmaceutical intervention -- CPI Corruption Perceptions Index -- ISSP International Social Survey Program -- OxCGRT Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker -- DAG Directed acyclic graph; D11 -- H12 -- I18; Social medicine -- Periodicals; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Santé publique -- Périodiques; Psychologie -- Périodiques; Médecine -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114958
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-9536

Abstract

Abstract: Corruption is considered in the literature as an activity with several externalities and spillover effects. Adding to the recent research on the corruption-COVID-19 nexus, we study the impact of corruption on coronavirus cases. High perceived levels of corruption have been proven to lead to lower institutional trust, and hence possibly to lower levels of citizen compliance with non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), such as lockdowns, imposed by the authorities during the first wave of the pandemic to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Applying quantitative analysis with the use of hybrid models, we find that in countries with higher levels of perceived corruption, across alternative corruption measures, more COVID-19 cases are observed, ceteris paribus . This suggests that corruption has a detrimental effect on the spread of COVID-19, and that countries experiencing higher levels of corruption should pay extra attention when implementing NPIs. Highlights: Countries where the public is perceived as more corrupt have more COVID cases. Corruption in politicians and public officials leads to the same increase in cases. Results are robust to alternative operationalization of corruption.