The recently-adopted OECD convention outlawing bribery of foreign public officials is welcome evidence of how much progress has been made in the battle against corruption. The financial crisis in East Asia is an indication of how much remains to be done. Corruption is by no means a new issue but it has only recently emerged as a global issue. With the end of the Cold War, the pace and breadth of the trends toward democratization and international economic integration accelerated and expanded globally. Yet corruption could slow or even reverse these trends, potentially threatening economic development and political stability in some countries. As the global implications of corruption have grown, so has the impetus for international action to combat it. In addition to efforts in the OECD, the Organization of American States, the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations General Assembly, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have both begun to emphasize corruption as an impediment to economic development. This book includes a chapter by the Chairman of the OECD Working Group on Bribery discussing the evolution of the OECD convention and what is needed to make it effective. Other chapters address the causes and consequences of corruption, including the impact on investment and growth and the role of multinational corporations in discouraging bribery. The final chapter summarizes and also discusses some of the other anticorruption initiatives that either have been or should be adopted by governments, multilateral development banks, and other international organizations.

Corruption is an almost universal and persistent feature of the modern state. Commentators primarily view corruption as a major obstacle to development, whereas dissenting voices claim that corruption has the power to facilitate trade that would otherwise not have taken place. This comprehensive collection presents the most significant works contributing to our understanding of this debate, focusing on the key conceptual and theoretical issues and discussing anti-corruption policies. Alongside an original introduction by the editors, this collection is a highly valuable asset to scholars and academics alike.

Have you ever asked yourself what gives comfort to someone who demands and accepts a bribe, sells drugs or commits professional crimes for money? The majority of these people are not wealthy, and they accept small amounts of money every day from their victims. Cash, Corruption and Economic Development examines the causes of corruption and crime and highlights what brings comfort to all those who accept bribes and kickbacks, arguing that it is paper currency because it does not leave a signature of its movement from one entity to another. The author proposes that today, with the technology available, we can make the transition to a paper currency-free economy, which will help reduce corruption and crime and give a boost to economic development. The book analyses the causes of corruption and presents a replacement for the current model, to be implemented by a central bank and followed by banks operating within its jurisdiction. This book will be of interest to economists, students of economics and finance, and all those who have suffered as a result of corruption and professional crime and want these practices to end.

The book analyses the influence of corruption on economic growth and environmental protection, examining corruption from different perspectives. It contributes to several streams of the literature and assembles evidence of the influence of corruption on two important variables in human welfare: income and environmental policies. The material evinces the detrimental effect that corruption has on economic growth and on the stringency of environmental policies. It also shows that standard techniques for fighting corruption are often based either on simplistic definitions or on strong assumptions that do not apply in many countries blighted by corruption. From a methodological standpoint, this work combines a number of approaches including a theoretical discussion of corruption and of its definition (often omitted in economic studies), together with econometrics, case studies and policy discussions.

Using cases on individual countries, Economic Development in the Middle East and North Africa offers diverse theoretical and empirical evidence on a variety of issues facing policymakers, investors, and other stakeholders in the region.

This new edition of a 1999 classic shows how institutionalized corruption can be fought through sophisticated political-economic reform.

How high levels of corruption limit investment and growth can lead to ineffective government.