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CORRUPTION AND INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES
Author(s) -
DINCER OGUZHAN C.,
GUNALP BURAK
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
contemporary economic policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.454
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1465-7287
pISSN - 1074-3529
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7287.2011.00262.x
Subject(s) - language change , economic inequality , inequality , economics , exploit , investment (military) , public economics , income distribution , income inequality metrics , demographic economics , econometrics , political science , politics , computer science , art , mathematical analysis , literature , mathematics , computer security , law
In this study we analyze the effects of corruption on income inequality. Our analysis advances the existing literature in three ways. First, instead of using one of the corruption indices assembled by various investment risk services, we use an objective measure of corruption: the number of public officials convicted in a state for crimes related to corruption. Second, we minimize the problems which are likely to arise because of data incomparability by examining the differences in income inequality across the United States. Finally, we exploit both time series and cross‐sectional variation in the data. We find robust evidence that an increase in corruption increases income inequality. ( JEL D31, D73, I32)