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Corruption And Pro-Poor Growth Outcomes: Evidence And Lessons For African Countries, Léonce Ndikumana

PERI Working Papers

There is growing consensus on the view that corruption hurts economic performance by reducing private investment, by adversely affecting the quantity and quality of public infrastructure, by reducing tax revenue, and by reducing human capital accumulation. In addition to inefficiency effects – causing lower growth for a given endowment in factors and technology –, corruption also has adverse distributional effects as it hurts the poor disproportionately. For a given level of government budget and national income, high corruption countries achieve lower literacy rates, have higher mortality rates, and overall worse human development outcomes. Corruption deepens poverty by reducing pro-poor pubic …