An empirical analysis of government corruption among nations

The purpose of the present study is to re-examine the corruption data gathered by the International Center for Corruption Research in 2001. The particular interest of this study is to examine the empirical correlation between the corruption index and certain economic, political and cultural factors that might affect the perceived government corruption. Drawing from the literature on corruption, the study hypothesizes that government corruption is structurally related to and affected by national wealth (GDP, GNI per capita), respect for law and regime values, democracy (political right, civic liberty), level of education, and religious orientation. This is a general hypothesis. To examine it more effectively, the study compares the hypothesized empirical association among nations. This comparison should help us delineate the relevant attributes from non-relevant attributes and focus on interactive effects of key variables on government corruption