Debunking some bribery myths

NO MATTER where you are, few things provoke the ire of the public like a bribery scandal involving corporations and government officials. As recently as the past five years, we have continued to see bribery rear its head in Asia; in South Korea, the prominent bribery scandal involving Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong and South Korea's former President Park Guen-hye led to Park's resignation and conviction. Even just last month, Goldman Sachs's Asian subsidiary was fined for its role in Malaysia's 1MDB corruption scandal which saw billions of dollars for public development projects line the pockets of private individuals and government officials including former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak. These incidents are nevertheless merely a glimpse into how pervasive corporate bribery may be behind the scenes.

Although we all have a conception of bribery and corruption on the corporate and political levels, much of it feels like hearsay or the sensationalised fluff of urban legends or Hollywood films. We frequently discuss bribery with the tacit understanding that much of it remains beyond our grasp due to its illegal and undisclosed nature.

While most studies have analysed bribery using questionnaires and surveys that discuss macro perceptions of corruption, my colleagues and I decided to delve into the hard data available. With data from 195 documented bribery incidents spanning 60 countries over a 40-year period, we examined the benefits of bribery at the micro level and challenged the veracity of common hypotheses surrounding bribery in the real world.