Bribery and corruption in the US: the role of political party affiliation, race, living in the deep south and economic mobility

Purpose With individual-level data from the US General Social Survey, this paper explores the effects of political party affiliation, race, residing in the deep south and economic mobility on the probability of (1) being solicited for bribes by politicians, (2) the number of politicians involved in corruption has a particular frequency, (3) the number of government administrators involved in corruption has a particular frequency and (4) the necessity for giving bribes to get ahead. Design/methodology/approach OLS parameter estimates from standardized probability prediction regressors generated from a fixed effects ordinal logit estimator are utilized to estimate the on-select individual bribery/corruption likelihoods. Findings Parameter estimates suggest that political party affiliation, race, residing in the deep south and economic mobility are drivers of bribery and corruption among politicians and government administrators. Practical implications Our results likely have a broad, albeit stark, implication about the trajectory of corruption among public and elected officials in the US. The effects of party-affiliation, race, residing in the deep south and economic mobility likely intersect and interact to capture, in part or in whole, the historic and ongoing racial inequality in the US. In this context, our parameter estimates suggest that this intersectional and interactive phenomenon of persistent and rising racial inequality, if not reversed, will act as a constraint on lower levels of or on the eradication of, political corruption in the US. Originality/value We provide, likely for the first time, estimates of the determinants of individual bribery and corruption behavior with US General Social Survey Data.