Open AccessAjit Mishra. The Economics of Corruption. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 2005. 336 pages. Hardbound. Indian Rs 650.00.
Author(s) -
Muhammad Mansoor Saleem
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v47i1pp.121-123
Subject(s) - principal (computer security) , language change , incentive , supervisor , agency (philosophy) , principal–agent problem , political science , law and economics , management , law , sociology , computer science , economics , computer security , social science , art , microeconomics , corporate governance , literature
The Economics of Corruption is a collection of papers coveringboth the theoretical as well as the empirical perspectives oncorruption. It deals with various aspects of corruption and provides awell-integrated framework for research in this growing and active areaof inquiry. Besides the first chapter, “Corruption: An Overview”,written by Ajit Mishra, which is an excellent review of the existingliterature in the field, the book consists of ten articles divided bythree themes. “Corruption as phenomena [sic] is always associated withan agency structure” writes Ajit in the introductory chapter of the book(p. 5). Corruption arises when the principal and agent have conflictingobjectives and the principal fails to design the comprehensiveenforceable contract due to lack of information. It becomes complicatedwhen the principal puts an incentive scheme in place so as to induceoptimal action by the agent and hires another agent to implement thisincentive scheme, referred to as Supervisor. Ajit classifies thisPrincipal-Supervisor-Agent problem, broadly, into three different typesof relationships according to the powers and responsibilities enjoyed bythe Supervisor.