Anti-Corruption Campaign and Firm Financial Performance: Evidence From Vietnam Firms

Background Corruption affects businesses in various ways. Anti-corruption, on the other hand, can improve the institutions of the country as well as business operations. Vietnam, as a socialist-oriented country with an ongoing high-profile anti-corruption campaign, provides us a unique setting to evaluate the impacts of anti-corruption on corporate performance. Objectives We address two questions: (1) what is the effect of anti-corruption on the performance of private-owned firms in Vietnam? and (2) how does anti-corruption influence the performance of firms with state ownership (FSOs) in Vietnam? Research design To investigate the impact of anti-corruption on performance of firms with different ownership settings, we use the establishment of the Central Anti-Corruption Steering Committee of Vietnam as a quasi-natural experiment for difference-in-differences analysis. We generate treatment effects of private holding and the state block ownership. To validate the findings, we construct a novel news-based anti-corruption index from Vietnamese online newspapers and use it in a robustness test to evaluate anti-corruption’s impacts on firm performance. Results and Conclusions We find a positive impact of the anti-corruption campaign on private firms’ performance, supporting the social norm perspective of how corruption affects businesses. The empirical results indicate a negative impact of the campaign on FSOs’ performance. The findings suggest that anti-corruption benefits private firms via improving the institutional quality of the country while improving the financial transparency of FSOs. Our study provides a method for measuring anti-corruption which is virtually unobservable and absent in the literature. The findings have implications for policymaking in contemporary Vietnam.

Sustainable socio-economic development and Rainbow Europe Index

The issues of recognizing the rights of the LGBTQ+ community around the world and developing appropriate anti-discrimination policies and laws are one of the main topics for discussion in the global agenda. This is due to the commitment of the world community to protect human rights and meet the needs of society. The paper aims to assess the relationship between socio-economic development indicators of some European countries and the Rainbow Europe Index. To find out how discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community affects various social and economic development indicators of some European countries, a data matrix was developed and the Spearman rank correlation coefficient was calculated. The obtained results confirmed a positive relationship between the Rainbow Europe Index and GDP per capita, the Human Development Index, the Corruption Index, and the Index of Happiness. Calculations have shown that the Rainbow Europe Index had a significant impact on these indicators. The study proved the dependence of indicators and demonstrated the need to provide freedoms and rights for LGBTQ+ affiliated members in Ukraine and other European countries. AcknowledgmentThis paper is published as a part of research projects “Convergence of economic and educational transformations in the digital society: modeling the impact on regional and national security” (No. 0121U109553) and “Reforming the lifelong learning system in Ukraine for the prevention of the labor emigration: a coopetition model of institutional partnership” (No. 0120U102001).

Pengungkapan Laporan Keuangan Pemerintah Daerah Dan Indeks Persepsi Korupsi : A Preliminary Study

The regional authority to manage its own finances often results in acts of abuse of authority that lead to corruption. There is a possibility caused by the quality of local government financial statements disclosures is not yet good. This study aims to examine the relationship between the local government financial statements disclosure level with the corruption perception index. The research population used in this study were cities that were surveyed for corruption perceptions in 2015 and 2017, which are: Medan; Padang; Pekanbaru; Bandung; Semarang; Surabaya; Pontianak; Banjarmasin; Balikpapan; Manado; and Makassar. The results of this study show that regions with a low corruption index tend to have high levels of disclosure. This happens because the public is not always be able to monitor the behavior of government officials and there is a possibility that the financial statements are modified by some unscrupulous individuals to make it get unqualified opinion. Kewenangan daerah dalam mengelola keuangannya sendiri sering kali menimbulkan tindak penyalahgunaan kekuasaan yang berujung pada korupsi. Ada kemungkinan hal tersebut disebabkan karena kualitas pengungkapan laporan keuangan daerah yang belum baik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meneliti hubungan tingkat pengungkapan laporan keuangan pemerintah daerah dengan indeks persepsi korupsi. Populasi penelitian yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kota-kota yang menjadi survei persepsi korupsi tahun 2015 dan 2017, yaitu: Medan; Padang; Pekanbaru; Bandung; Semarang; Surabaya; Pontianak; Banjarmasin; Balikpapan; Manado; dan Makassar. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa daerah yang memiliki Indeks Persepsi Korupsi rendah cenderung memiliki tingkat pengungkapan tinggi. Hal ini terjadi karena masyarakat tidak selalu bisa mengawasi perilaku pejabat pemerintah dan ada kemungkinan laporan keuangan dimodifikasi oleh oknum agar mendapat opini wajar

Why Does Indonesia Have a High Covid-19 Case-Fatality Rate?

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm, but the magnitude of its impact differs from country to country. As of August 2020, Indonesia’s COVID-19 case-fatality rate is higher than the world average. The aim of our research is to find out why Indonesia has a high COVID-19 case-fatality rate. Using OLS regression models, we found the number of COVID-19 related deaths, the number of COVID-19 tests performed, population age, population, voice and accountability index, and control of corruption index are significant predictors of a country’s COVID-19 case-fatality rate. Based on our results, we conclude that Indonesia’s COVID-19 case-fatality rate is higher than it is supposed to be, mainly because of a lack of COVID-19 testing and accurate public information.

The Relationship between Corruption, Innovation and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from OECD Countries

The phenomenon of corruption which has significant effects on the economic growth process and innovation capacity of countries is one of the frequently discussed topics especially in the economics literature in recent years. From this point, the purpose of this study is to contribute to determining the relationship between corruption, innovation, and economic growth. To achieve this purpose, panel data analysis is carried out using data from a total of 37 OECD members for the period 2007-2019. In this context, firstly unit root tests are performed, and then panel cointegration tests are employed to determine the long-term relationship between the variables. Long-run coefficients are estimated by using FMOLS and DOLS methods. The findings obtained from the analysis show that there is a cointegration relationship between corruption, innovation, and economic growth. Accordingly, corruption and innovation have a positive and significant impact on economic growth. In addition, the rise in the corruption index has a positive and significant effect on innovation. In other words, the increase in the corruption index (decrease in the perception of corruption) contributes positively to both innovation and economic growth process in the related countries.

The asymmetric influence of corruption on financial development: fresh evidence from BRICS economies

Purpose This paper aims to assess the asymmetric impact of corruption on financial development in BRICS economies context. Design/methodology/approach The authors have adopted the novel panel non-linear autoregressive distributed lag (PNARDL) model of Shin et al. (2014), covering the period 1991–2018. Findings The findings confirm that corruption asymmetrically impacts financial development in BRICS economies. More precisely, long-run negative shocks of the control of corruption index have significant negative impacts on financial development. However, long-run positive shocks of the control of corruption index are insignificant. Moreover, both positive and negative shocks of corruption in short-run results are insignificant. Generally, the findings are robust having carried out several robustness checks and in favor of “sand in the wheels” hypothesis. Originality/value This study makes a novel contribution by developing insight on how corruption asymmetrically impacts financial development. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to use the PNARDL, which decompose the main independent variable (corruption) into positive and negative shocks. The PNARDL approach is a dynamic robust estimate that controls for the problem of endogeneity, which is a common phenomenon in such studies. Additionally, it is believed that the findings are important for policy makers, scholars and practitioners. Finally, the authors used the most recent available dataset covering the BRICS context.

Fiscal Decentralization, Accountability and Corruption Indication: Evidence from Indonesia

In the Corruption Perception Index 2019, Indonesia ranks 90th among 180 countries (Transparency International, 2020). Indonesia still among the lowest rank in the corruption index. This index shows that corruption is an important issue for Indonesia. Therefore, the study aims at examining the determinants of corruption in Indonesia. This study focuses on two important aspects: fiscal decentralization and accountability. Since the enactment of Law Number 22 of 1999, which was then revised by Law Number 32 of 2004, the local government can manage fiscal. It is expected that local governments can use resources for the improvement of the wealth of the citizens. Further, the local government has a responsibility for using the resources. However, there are cases regarding corruption in local government in Indonesia. This study uses secondary data from local government financial statements to search the corruption indication, level of fiscal decentralization, and accountability. The study’s sample consists of 94 districts/cities on Java during the 2013-2015 period. The dependent variable in this study is an indication of corruption. Furthermore, the study divided corruption into three aspects: regional losses, potential regional losses, and revenue deficiency. The independent variables in this study were fiscal decentralization and accountability. This study uses multiple linear regression models to test the effect of fiscal decentralization and accountability on Indonesia’s corruption indicator. The result of the study shows that fiscal decentralization has a negative impact on corruption indication. The higher degree of fiscal decentralization minimizes the corruption indication in Java island. Meanwhile, fiscal decentralization has a negative effect on regional losses and revenue deficiency. Accountability has no significant on corruption indication. However, accountability has a negative impact on regional losses. In conclusion, both fiscal decentralization and accountability have curb corruption indication in the regional losses aspect.

Corruption Possibilities in the Climate Financing Sector and Role of the Civil Societies in Bangladesh

Climate governance has become a global issue, and it has proved difficult for any government to tackle this issue on its own. The role of civil society is most crucial, particularly in ensuring transparency and accountability in climate finance. Under certain international agreements, a huge amount of money is channeled in climate-vulnerable countries like Bangladesh through the climate financing mechanism. This is a tempting opportunity for a country routinely ranked first in the corruption index. This paper explores whether the growing involvement of various non-state actors in climate financing, under the dominant mechanism, creates a new ground for corruption together with the state actors. The paper aimed at helping ensure that climate finance decisions and actions are conducted with transparency, accountability, and integrity to prevent corruption and misuse of funds from undermining climate objectives. The main objective of the paper is to increase the capacity of stakeholders, particularly civil society, to contribute to the creation, implementation, and supervision of climate finance governance policies, with the participation of stakeholders, including government, fund managers, donors, Civil Society Organizations, non-governmental organizations, private sectors, and media analysis. Via content analysis, this study found that the Civil Society Organizations are getting caught up in the vicious circle of corruption in the climate finance sector in Bangladesh. Without having a separate mechanism for the Civil Society Organizations, there is little chance that their role will be positive in tackling corruption in this sector.

Is the relationship between corruption and domestic investment non-linear in Nigeria? Empirical evidence from quarterly data

This study employs the ARDL estimation method to investigate whether corruption and domestic investment relationship is non-linear in Nigeria using quarterly data over the 1996-2019 period. Other alternative estimation techniques such as the CCR, DOLS and FMOLS were used to check for consistency of the results. The results demonstrate that corruption-domestic relationship is non-linear. Although domestic investment reduces with an improvement in the corruption index (reducing corruption), a further reduction in corruption raises the domestic investment. Other significant determinants of domestic investment include income level, oil prices and inflation rate. Based on these outcomes, this study recommends policies to reduce corruption to raise domestic investment.