Development Economics (Audio)

Which underlying features of a social order predict and possibly cause corruption?  Some of the answers may surprise you.

Are women less corrupt?  Maybe so!

How does corruption skew the mix of outputs?  Do we get too many dams and too little education?

An searing example of corruption from Katherine Boo's Beyond the Beautiful Forevers.  Justice and individual rights are not distinct from development, justice and individual rights are required for and constitutive of development.

She still has an excellent chance for a Nobel Prize.  She is the preeminent thinker on measuring the costs of rent-seeking, plus her work on trade and growth continues to resonate.

Free trade, but not free capital movements!  Bhagwati is a key figure behind the idea of rent-seeking and also trade theory, plus he has been a keen observer of current events.

What do we know about anti-corruption campaigns?  Which ones have worked?

Does paying public officials more limit corruption?  How much do we have to pay?

Do corrupt tendencies persist across changes in country? Very often yes.

There are many myths about this organization, which is actually not so mysterious after all...