Annals of the University of Oradea: Economic Science (Jul 2016)
THE PHENOMENON OF CORRUPTION AT THE LEVEL OF THE G20 VS. ROMANIA
Abstract
Corruption is a mass phenomenon which is present on all the globe’s meridians, being relatively easy to identify but very tricky to accurately measure, which assumes a large number of particularities attaining to the complexity of it: culture, education, tolerance, awareness and value system. The phenomenon of corruption at the level of G20 has some particularities, which could be influenced by the governments of the states by increasing the standard of living and the level of education among their people. The fiscal strategy of a government plays an important role in this equation, such that many people are willing to commit acts of corruption, not necessarily due to greed or rent-seeking behaviour, but because they want to save their ongoing businesses and assure a better standard of living for themselves and their close ones. The database is composed of all the member countries of the G20, at which we have added, for comparability reasons, Romania and the European Union as a whole. We follow the phenomenon of corruption by means of economic variables (GDP per capita), fiscal variables (taxation level), educational level (average number of years spent in an educational institution), social variables (the population’s trust in the act of justice) and political variables (political stability). These independent variables will be correlated by means of a reference system, meaning the Corruption Perception Index calculated by Transparency International. All the 5 independent variables reflect the reality of the year 2014. In this sense, we have run a series of regressions with the help of the Excel software, each independent variable being correlated to the variable Corruption Perception Index; the resulting series of correlation coefficients applied on the database values were arranged in a 3-part ranking: the first third – countries where the phenomenon of corruption is low, the second third – countries with a medium level of the corruption phenomenon, and the last third – countries with a high level of corruption. Even though the macroeconomic indicators of Romania are lower than those of many countries of the G20, nevertheless our country is situated in the middle of the ranking, with a score higher than the EU average, outstanding many G20 member countries.
