I think you need to think a bit deeper about the corruption thing. A political-economists view might be that there isn’t that much harm in corruption per se, but there is a lot of harm in certain types of corruption. Sometimes corruption is a means of achieving fantastic policy goals, anti-corruption one of them. The key thing is to keep an eye on what matters and the effects of your actions, and make sure you’re completely honest with those you love. Imagine saying to someone they should go into consultancy but never wear a suit—in some environments its a signal, and that signal can’t be changed below in a meaningful way. But there are always counter-examples, like Dora Akunyili—but she wouldn’t have done what she did without being a first class pharmacist with a fiery personality in the right place at the right time.
This was once controversial, but I now think that economists have settled into thinking that corruption is bad overall:
“Does corruption sand or grease the wheels of economic growth? This column reviews recent research that uses meta-analysis techniques to try to provide more concrete answers to this old-age question. From a unique, comprehensive data base of 460 estimates of the impact of corruption on growth from 41 studies, the main conclusion that emerges is that there is little support for the “greasing the wheels” hypothesis.”
I don’t think that addresses my comment. I’m not talking about corruption as a general phenomenon being correlated with higher growth. I’m talking about corruption being a political phenomenon and anti-corruption being a cause-blind political intervention. Without local knowledge you don’t know if you’re improving things or not. Political economy doesn’t equal economics. But thanks, useful article!
I think you need to think a bit deeper about the corruption thing. A political-economists view might be that there isn’t that much harm in corruption per se, but there is a lot of harm in certain types of corruption. Sometimes corruption is a means of achieving fantastic policy goals, anti-corruption one of them. The key thing is to keep an eye on what matters and the effects of your actions, and make sure you’re completely honest with those you love. Imagine saying to someone they should go into consultancy but never wear a suit—in some environments its a signal, and that signal can’t be changed below in a meaningful way. But there are always counter-examples, like Dora Akunyili—but she wouldn’t have done what she did without being a first class pharmacist with a fiery personality in the right place at the right time.
This was once controversial, but I now think that economists have settled into thinking that corruption is bad overall:
“Does corruption sand or grease the wheels of economic growth? This column reviews recent research that uses meta-analysis techniques to try to provide more concrete answers to this old-age question. From a unique, comprehensive data base of 460 estimates of the impact of corruption on growth from 41 studies, the main conclusion that emerges is that there is little support for the “greasing the wheels” hypothesis.”
http://www.voxeu.org/article/does-corruption-sand-or-grease-wheels-economic-growth
I don’t think that addresses my comment. I’m not talking about corruption as a general phenomenon being correlated with higher growth. I’m talking about corruption being a political phenomenon and anti-corruption being a cause-blind political intervention. Without local knowledge you don’t know if you’re improving things or not. Political economy doesn’t equal economics. But thanks, useful article!