Money and Time in Access to Public Services: How Do Citizens Evaluate Different Forms of Bureaucratic Corruption?

There is extensive research about how bureaucracies in the developing world depart from the Weberian ideal and the ways in which corruption distorts the provision of public services. However, less is known about how citizens respond to the corruption they encounter in daily life. In this study, we implement a conjoint experiment to investigate how citizens evaluate different forms of corruption in the public sector. We find that they prefer “speed money” corrupt bureaucrats and reject “petty theft” corrupt bureaucrats when seeking a government service. In addition, this preference for “speed money” is not more salient among citizens who perceive the bureaucracy as inefficient. Instead, those who can afford to pay bribes are more accepting of bureaucratic corruption.