Corruption and citizen compliance with the law : an empirical analysis

Abstract

I empirically analyze the effect of the disclosure of corruption cases on the compliance with law by citizens. To do so, I use data on corruption cases generated by the Brazil's anti-corruption plan, which randomly audits municipalities for their use of federal funds. I measure noncompliance with the law by citizens using data on traffic offenses at the municipality level. My main results indicate that the disclosure of corruption cases at the municipality level increases traffic offenses per capita by 1.2% and an additional case of corruption disclosed increases traffic offenses per capita by 0.4%. These estimates are small and not statistically different from zero. Therefore, I am not able to conclude that the disclosure of corruption has an impact on the compliance with the law by citizens.