Who is the most affected by corruption, the rich citizen or the poor? Who is more likely to validate corrupt activities, the rich or the poor? A fundamental question that the members of a society face is whether they would like to live in a corrupt system. In other words, if people had an option between choosing a corrupt State over an honest State, which one they should go for? We claim that in a society characterized by inhabitants with varying levels of income, the answer to the question may differ between the rich and the poor. We show that with significant costs of corruption, the poorer section of the society tends to suffer more than the richer one concerning the honest system where public officials are honest. By applying the robust least squares technique, for Mexico over the 1996-2016 period, it is shown that: 1) in Mexico the rich support/like/want/contribute more to a corrupt system; 2) the poor are very affected by a corrupt system; 3) the government and its policies have no effect on the income of the rich, while for the poor, if the government's policies are of better or higher quality, then the less poor they will be, and 4) economic inequality, measured by the Gini index, affects the poor more than the rich.

Corruption for the rich and the poor in Mexico: Who supports it even more? / González Lara, José María; Sánchez Carrera, Edgar J.. - In: EL TRIMESTRE ECONÓMICO. - ISSN 0041-3011. - STAMPA. - 86:(2019), pp. 1033-1055. [10.20430/ete.v86i344.799]

Corruption for the rich and the poor in Mexico: Who supports it even more?

Sánchez Carrera, Edgar J.
2019

Abstract

Who is the most affected by corruption, the rich citizen or the poor? Who is more likely to validate corrupt activities, the rich or the poor? A fundamental question that the members of a society face is whether they would like to live in a corrupt system. In other words, if people had an option between choosing a corrupt State over an honest State, which one they should go for? We claim that in a society characterized by inhabitants with varying levels of income, the answer to the question may differ between the rich and the poor. We show that with significant costs of corruption, the poorer section of the society tends to suffer more than the richer one concerning the honest system where public officials are honest. By applying the robust least squares technique, for Mexico over the 1996-2016 period, it is shown that: 1) in Mexico the rich support/like/want/contribute more to a corrupt system; 2) the poor are very affected by a corrupt system; 3) the government and its policies have no effect on the income of the rich, while for the poor, if the government's policies are of better or higher quality, then the less poor they will be, and 4) economic inequality, measured by the Gini index, affects the poor more than the rich.
2019
86
1033
1055
González Lara, José María; Sánchez Carrera, Edgar J.
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
trimestre.pdf

Accesso chiuso

Licenza: Tutti i diritti riservati
Dimensione 416.86 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
416.86 kB Adobe PDF   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in FLORE sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificatore per citare o creare un link a questa risorsa: https://hdl.handle.net/2158/1384320
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 3
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 1
social impact