Corruption and informal practices in the Middle East and North Africa: a pooled cross-sectional analysis

Abstract This paper concentrates on informal practices, which refer to transactions occurring outside formal institutions and regulations. Bribery fits this definition as it involves the exchange of money or favours outside legal channels to gain an advantage or influence decisions. We analyse bribery in five sectors (education, judiciary, medical, police, and permit) between 2003 and 2013 using the Global Corruption Barometer survey. Multinomial logistic and logit regressions verify that in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), people bribe the authorities more than in the rest of the world, while the magnitude depends on the model. The results are robust with fixed effects and propensity score matching regressions. This paper proposes that higher bribing rates in the MENA region can be explained by informal practices such as wasta , hamula , and combina— the channels that undergird transactions. The article concludes with policy implications to alleviate the impacts of bribery in the MENA region.