Speaker: Bernhard Reinsberg (University of Glasgow)
Date: 27 February 14.00 CET
Where: Online. Register to join here
Business Interactions with Government: When Administrative Burdens Become Corruption Catalysts
Authors: Bernhard Reinsberg (University of Glasgow, School of Social and Political Sciences), Denisse Rodriguez-Olivari and Adina Dudau (University of Glasgow, Adam Smith Business School)
In many interactions between businesses and governments, firms resort to bribing officials to navigate actual or perceived operational barriers. From the government’s perspective, two factors enable this phenomenon: administrative burdens and officials’ discretionary powers. This article focuses on the former administrative burdens, testing the ‘grease-the-wheels’ hypothesis using previously untapped firm-level survey data from 169,959 companies across 141 countries (both developed and developing) between 2006 and 2022. Specifically, we examine business licensing requirements, analyzing the time it takes firms to obtain operating licenses and how much they perceive regulations as obstacles. Our results show a significant positive correlation between administrative burdens and bribery practices, comparing firms within the same country, wave, and sector. These findings have implications for both theory and practice: (a) they highlight the importance of minimizing administrative burdens that incentivize bribery, and (b) they suggest that addressing administrative inefficiencies/burdens could have broad applicability across different political and economic contexts.
The BridgeGap Talk Series
Want to make a real difference in the fight against corruption? The BridgeGap Talk Series is your chance to connect with leading experts and rising stars in the field. Join the BridgeGap experts as they share their knowledge on multidisciplinary research and innovative tools designed to combat corruption. Join the conversation and help build a more transparent and accountable world.
In this second edition, Bernhard Reinsberg, Professor of International Political Economy and Development at the University of Glasgow, School of Social and Political Sciences, will discuss the paper “Business Interactions with Government: When Administrative Burdens Become Corruption Catalysts”.
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Reinsberg, B. (2025, February 27). BridgeGap Talk Series Episode 2 – Business Interactions with Government: When Administrative Burdens Become Corruption Catalysts. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14965550