Trends in Corruption and Regulatory Burden in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

The World Bank

Description

Historically countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia have faced a number of obstacles in their transition to democracy and market-based economies. These obstacles include higher levels of corruption, and greater administrative and regulatory burdens as they pass laws and implement programs to combat corruption and promote private sector development. This report uses the results of the most recent Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) to examine trends in corruption and administrative burden of regulations on private sector firms in 29 Eastern European and Central Asian countries.
The results show overall positive trends in the Eastern Europe and Central Asian region in terms of incidence of corruption and the burden placed on private sector firms by administrative and other regulations. . The most notable and definitive finding from the 2008 BEEPS is a continuation in the favorable trend regarding firms' payment of administrative bribes. Across the region, there has been progress made in the perceptions of bribery and unofficial payments. Frequency of bribe-paying fell significantly in the areas of taxes, customs and imports and courts, for the region overall and in most countries.
The report examines several factors that influence the level of administrative corruption, including regulatory burden, strength of anti-corruption legislation, and income (among others). Results show that countries with greater capacity to enforce and implement anti-corruption measures are less likely to have high levels of corruption and incidence of graft. The results presented in the report show that countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia are no longer facing higher corruption or regulatory burden than firms in comparable non-transition countries.

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• Governance

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• Publié par: world-bank-publications
• Publié le: 06 janvier 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 18
• EAN13: 9780821386712
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

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Trends in Corruption and

Regulatory Burden in

Eastern Europe and Central Asia

WORLD BANK STUDY

Trends in Corruption and

Regulatory Burden in

Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Copyright © 2011
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ISBN: 978-0-8213-8671-2
eISBN: 978-0-8213-8696-5
DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-8671-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been requested.

Contents

Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................
vii
Acronyms and Abbreviations .................................................................................................
ix
Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................
xi
1. Introduction ...........................................................................................................................
1
2. Data Issues. ..............................................................................................................................
4
3. Trends in Corruption and Regulatory Burden ................................................................
8
Corruption as an Obstacle to Doing Business .................................................................
8
Administrative Corruption ..............................................................................................
11
State Capture ......................................................................................................................
16
Regulatory Burden ............................................................................................................
24
4. What In
fl
uences the Level of Administrative Corruption? . ........................................
28
5. Are Transition Countries Di
ff
erent from Other Developing Countries? ................
36
6. Tax Administration and Customs ....................................................................................
40
7. Legal and Judicial Systems ................................................................................................
50
8. Conclusion . ...........................................................................................................................
57
References. .................................................................................................................................
59
Technical Notes and Data Tables .........................................................................................
61

Tables
Table 3.1. Corruption as Obstacle to Doing Business: Relative Ranking among
14 Obstacles .........................................................................................................................
9
Table 3.2. WEF “State Capture” Related Questions .............................................................
19
Table B3.4. Distribution of Respondents to the 2009 WEF Survey by Country and
Firm Size .............................................................................................................................
19
Table 3.3. Improvements in Doing Business Indicators in ECA, 2005 to 2008 .................
25
Table A1. Transition and Nontransition Compared ............................................................
71
Table A2. Sample Summary 2005 and 2008 ...........................................................................
75
Table A3. Problems Doing Business: Ranking of Problems 2008 .......................................
76
Table A4. Problems Doing Business: Ranking of Problems 2005 .......................................
77
Table A5. Factors that are Not a Problem Doing Business, Percentage Point
Changes and Statistical Signi
fi
cance . .............................................................................
78

iii

ivContents

Figures
Figure 1. Bribe Frequency by Subsector, 2005 and 2008. .....................................................
xii
Figure 2. Bribes in Public Procurement by Region, 2005 and 2008. .................................
xiii
Figure 3. Bribe Frequency and “Implementation Gap” ....................................................
xiii
Figure 4. Graft by Region ......................................................................................................
xiv
Figure 2.1. Bribe Frequency in Firms vs. Households in the Last 12 Months ....................
5
Figure 3.1. Corruption as an Obstacle to Doing Business: Relative Changes, 2005
and 2008 ................................................................................................................................
9
Figure 3.2. Corruption as an Obstacle to Doing Business: Relative Changes, 1999
and 2008 ..............................................................................................................................
10
Figure 3.3. Corruption: Frequency of Complaints vs. Severity of the Problem ...............
11
Figure 3.4. Bribe Frequency by Country, 2005 and 2008 ....................................................
12
Figure 3.5. Bribe Frequency in 1999 and 2008 ......................................................................
13
Figure 3.6. Bribe Frequency by Subsector, 2005 and 2008. ..................................................
14
Figure B3.1: Percentage of Firms Stating Informal Payments are Expected by Type
of Interaction ......................................................................................................................
14
Figure 3.7. Bribes in Public Procurement by Country, 2005 and 2008 ..............................
16
Figure 3.8. Business Costs of Corruption by Country, 2005 and 2008 ..............................
20
Figure 3.9. Diversion of Public Funds by Country, 2005 and 2008 ....................................
20
Figure 3.10. Bribe Frequency and Corruption ......................................................................
21
Figure 3.11. Corruption and State Capture ...........................................................................
22
Figure 4.1. Bribe Frequency by Subregion, 2005 and 2008 ..................................................
29
Figure 4.2. Bribe Frequency and Per Capita Income. ...........................................................
29
Figure 4.3. Regulations and Administrative Corruption Levels ........................................
30
Figure 4.4. Bribe Frequency and Strength of Anti-Corruption Laws ................................
33
Figure 4.5. Bribe Frequency and Implementation of Anti-Corruption Laws ...................
34
Figure 4.6. Bribe Frequency and “Implementation Gap” ...................................................
34
Figure 5.1. Graft by Region ......................................................................................................
38
Figure 6.1. Bribe Frequency in