ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a comparative assessment of public corruption in Latin America in relation to other nations throughout the world. For the nations of Latin America, corruption is and will remain the largest political and economic concern. A consideration of business ethics in Latin America must take into account both the private realm and the public, as well as the status of the academic study of business ethics, and the role of non-profit and non-governmental organizations. The Transparency International report provides evidence of the overall picture of corruption in the world and allows us to contrast the Latin American nations with the rest of the world. The Latin American nations together show a dispersion in terms of a declared practice of paying bribes. Turning from the practices of politics and business to the province of academe, one encounters another crucial yet underdeveloped aspect of business ethics in Latin America: teaching and research.
