ABSTRACT
Introduction Since the mid-1990s, empirical studies seeking to determine the causes and consequences of corruption have multiplied. Scholars from many disciplines are interested in understanding why corrupt practices occur more frequently in some countries than in others and, consequently, in understanding the political, economic, and social consequences of these illicit acts. The majority of these empirical investigations can be said to share three common traits: rst, they are comparative in nature, mostly cross-country analyses of the extent of corruption in various countries; second, they tend to focus on public rather than private corruption; and third, they tend to rely on subjective measures (or perceptions) of corruption for their data sources. To date, the availability of an unusually large number of high-quality review-and-synthesis papers on the causes and consequences of corruption obviates the need for yet another comprehensive review on the topic. One can be assured, however, that most meta-reviews point to the fact that the study of corruption has greatly benetted from this empirical turn as the eld moves beyond anecdotal descriptions, purely theoretical considerations, and compilations of individual scandals or cases that had dominated previous research (Lambsdor 2006a).
