The Effects of Electoral Cycles on Corruption in Selected Countries

Abstract

The destructive effects of corruption on the economic, social, and political development of countries have invigorated numerous studies to identify the determinants of corruption and to attempt to provide strategies to fight and control this issue. Accordingly, the present study attempts to estimate the impact of electoral cycles (including election year, government's ideology, coalition, and minority government) on corruption in two groups of selected democratic countries during the period 2003-2018 using panel data and the generalized moment models (GMM) method. The first group includes the countries with a positive average of the democracy index for the period under review, and the second group consists of countries with a negative average. The results showed that the effect of the election year on corruption in the second group countries was positive and significant, but in the first group, it was negative and significant. The effect of the government's ideology on corruption in the second group countries is positive and meaningful and in the first group countries, it has been meaningless. The influence of the coalition and the minority government on corruption in both groups is negative and meaningful. Also, the effect of control variables including per capita income, E-government, and democracy on corruption in both groups of selected countries has been positive and meaningful. However, the impact of natural resource rents on corruption in the second group countries has been positive and meaningful, whereas it was meaningless for the first group countries.

Keywords

• corruption
• electoral cycles
• coalition
• minority government
• democracy.