Misunderestimating Corruption
Aart Kraay and Peter Murrell
,
3
(
98
)
The Review of Economics and Statistics
455-466
July
2016
kraaymurrellrestatjuly2016.pdf312.61 KB
Abstract
Corruption estimates rely largely on self-reports of affected individuals and officials. Yet survey respondents are often reticent to tell the truth about sensitive subjects, leading to downward biases in surveybased corruption estimates. This paper develops a method to estimate the prevalence of reticent behavior and reticence-adjusted rates of corruption using survey responses to sensitive questions. A statistical model captures how respondents answer a combination of conventional and randomresponse questions, allowing identification of the effect of reticence.