Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions

This paper studies the relationship between distortions, plant size, and bribery possibilities. In a distorted economy, bribery is a transfer from a private party to government officials to ‘get things done’. Enterprise Surveys data shows that smal...

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Main Author: Tamkoç, M. Nazin
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099939208312222334/IDU0ddc2ab7d06ea204cdf098b10f6cb0748af44
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37963
id okr-10986-37963
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-379632022-09-07T05:10:43Z Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions Tamkoç, M. Nazin BRIBERY MISALLOCATION DISTORTIONS PLANT SIZE CORRUPTION CORRUPT LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS CORRUPTION IN SMALL FIRMS BRIBES PAID BY SMALL FIRMS This paper studies the relationship between distortions, plant size, and bribery possibilities. In a distorted economy, bribery is a transfer from a private party to government officials to ‘get things done’. Enterprise Surveys data shows that small plants spend a higher fraction of their output on bribery than big plants. In this paper, a one-sector growth model is developed in which size-dependent distortions, bribery opportunities, and different plant sizes coexist. In the model, bribery is endogenous in the sense that managers decide to use it as a way to deal with distortions. Two sets of exercises are conducted to quantify the interplay of size-dependent distortions and bribery. First, the model parameters are calibrated to generate the plant size distribution of the U.S., by assuming the U.S. is free of distortions. Then, size-dependent distortions are introduced to the undistorted economy, and their effects with and without bribery opportunities are compared. Counterfactual exercises show that size-dependent distortions become less distortionary in the presence of bribery opportunities since plants are able to avoid distortions by paying larger bribes. Second, the model is calibrated with distortions and bribery opportunities using Turkish data. The choice of this country for analysis does not imply that bribery or size-dependent distortions are particularly large in Türkiye relative to countries of comparable development. The choice is driven by the availability of data on both the plant size distribution and spending on bribery in the country. The results indicate that the inferred level of distortions is sizable for all plants. The removal of distortions, which would eliminate the incentive for paying bribes, can have a substantial effect on both the output and the mean plant size which could increase by 63.6 and 82.5 percent, respectively. 2022-09-06T18:59:02Z 2022-09-06T18:59:02Z 2022-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099939208312222334/IDU0ddc2ab7d06ea204cdf098b10f6cb0748af44 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37963 English en Policy Research Working Papers;10159 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Turkey
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
English
topic BRIBERY
MISALLOCATION
DISTORTIONS
PLANT SIZE
CORRUPTION
CORRUPT LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
CORRUPTION IN SMALL FIRMS
BRIBES PAID BY SMALL FIRMS
spellingShingle BRIBERY
MISALLOCATION
DISTORTIONS
PLANT SIZE
CORRUPTION
CORRUPT LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
CORRUPTION IN SMALL FIRMS
BRIBES PAID BY SMALL FIRMS
Tamkoç, M. Nazin
Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions
geographic_facet Turkey
relation Policy Research Working Papers;10159
description This paper studies the relationship between distortions, plant size, and bribery possibilities. In a distorted economy, bribery is a transfer from a private party to government officials to ‘get things done’. Enterprise Surveys data shows that small plants spend a higher fraction of their output on bribery than big plants. In this paper, a one-sector growth model is developed in which size-dependent distortions, bribery opportunities, and different plant sizes coexist. In the model, bribery is endogenous in the sense that managers decide to use it as a way to deal with distortions. Two sets of exercises are conducted to quantify the interplay of size-dependent distortions and bribery. First, the model parameters are calibrated to generate the plant size distribution of the U.S., by assuming the U.S. is free of distortions. Then, size-dependent distortions are introduced to the undistorted economy, and their effects with and without bribery opportunities are compared. Counterfactual exercises show that size-dependent distortions become less distortionary in the presence of bribery opportunities since plants are able to avoid distortions by paying larger bribes. Second, the model is calibrated with distortions and bribery opportunities using Turkish data. The choice of this country for analysis does not imply that bribery or size-dependent distortions are particularly large in Türkiye relative to countries of comparable development. The choice is driven by the availability of data on both the plant size distribution and spending on bribery in the country. The results indicate that the inferred level of distortions is sizable for all plants. The removal of distortions, which would eliminate the incentive for paying bribes, can have a substantial effect on both the output and the mean plant size which could increase by 63.6 and 82.5 percent, respectively.
format Working Paper
author Tamkoç, M. Nazin
author_facet Tamkoç, M. Nazin
author_sort Tamkoç, M. Nazin
title Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions
title_short Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions
title_full Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions
title_fullStr Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions
title_full_unstemmed Bribery, Plant Size and Size Dependent Distortions
title_sort bribery, plant size and size dependent distortions
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2022
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099939208312222334/IDU0ddc2ab7d06ea204cdf098b10f6cb0748af44
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37963
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