The effect of market competition on bribery in emerging economies: An empirical analysis of Vietnamese firms
Abstract
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Studies of firm bribery have not fully examined how market competition
conditions the effects of social norms on firms’ bribe payments. We suggest that firms
pay bribes to obtain abnormal rents and/or to conform to accepted rules of corruption.
These motivations operate differently, depending on the level of market competition.
Using data from an annual survey of 10,000 Vietnamese firms between 2006 and 2017,
we find that in environments characterized by open competition, bribery is positively
associated with long-standing norms in the business social context, while in closed-competition
environments, bribe payments are functions of rents that accrue from uncertainty in
policy-making.
Type
Journal articleSubject
Social SciencesDevelopment Studies
Economics
Business & Economics
Bribe
Corruption
Social norm
Market competition
Policy uncertainty
Vietnam
SUB-NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
FOREIGN-INVESTMENT
PAY BRIBES
CORRUPTION
GROWTH
STATE
ISOMORPHISM
PERFORMANCE
STRATEGIES
POLITICS
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22270Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.104957Publication Info
Malesky, EJ; Nguyen, TV; Bach, TN; & Ho, BD (2020). The effect of market competition on bribery in emerging economies: An empirical analysis
of Vietnamese firms. World Development, 131. pp. 104957-104957. 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.104957. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22270.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Edmund Malesky
Professor of Political Science
Malesky is a specialist on Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam. Currently, Malesky's
research agenda is very much at the intersection of Comparative and International
Political Economy, falling into three major categories: 1) Authoritarian political
institutions and their consequences; 2) The political influence of foreign direct
investment and multinational corporations; and 3) Political institutions, private
business development, and formalization.

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