This paper will discuss eight frequently asked questions about public
corruption: 1) What is corruption? 2) Which countries are the most
corrupt? 3) What are the common characteristics of countries with high
corruption? 4) What is the magnitude of corruption? 5) Do higher wages
for bureaucrats reduce corruption? 6) Can competition reduce
corruption? 7) Why have there been so few (recent) successful attempts
to fight corruption? 8) Does corruption adversely affect growth? These
questions are not meant to be exhaustive, and readers interested in
additional discussion might begin by turning to the reviews by Bardhan
(1997) and Rose-Ackerman (1999).
The
purpose of this paper is to identify the nature of these concerns and
to find mechanisms that the donor community could employ to respond
creatively to the challenges that are likely to emerge in this domain.
