Gender, Culture, and Corruption: Insights from an Experimental Analysis

Abstract

A substantial body of recent research looks at differences in the behavior of men and women in diverse economic transactions. We contribute to this literature by investigating gender differences in behavior when confronted with a common bribery problem. Our study departs from the previous literature on gender and corruption by using economic experiments. Based on data collected in Australia (Melbourne), India (Delhi), Indonesia (Jakarta), and Singapore, we show that while women in Australia are less tolerant of corruption than men in Australia, no significant gender differences are seen in India, Indonesia, and Singapore. Hence, our findings suggest that the gender differences reported in previous studies may not be as universal as stated, and may be more culture specific. We also explore behavioral differences by gender across countries and find larger variations in women's behavior toward corruption than in men's across the countries in our sample.

CEO duality and bribery: the roles of gender and national culture

“…According to Alatas et al (2009), gender differences may be the result of disparities on both biological and social roles of men and women. Males are usually associated with strength, aggression, and dominance while females are usually associated with passivity, sensitivity, and care (Harloyd et al , 2002).…”

“…On the average, females are perceived to be more ethical than males, having greater sensitivity toward ethical issues, lesser tendency to be involved in illegal activities, and better inclination to take action whenever they recognize that there is a questionable business practice done (Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990; Glover et al , 2002). Additionally, women are more compliant with the laws, risk-averse, and less tolerant to corruption and bribery (Swamy et al , 2001; Alatas et al , 2009). These suggest an apparent gender difference in bribery.…”

“…Cultural differences are often linked to gender differences, seemingly exhibiting disparity of gender roles on views relating to ethics. According to Alatas et al (2009), dissimilarities in cultural backgrounds display gender differences to various degrees. Gender differences are results of social comparisons or stereotyping, which may exert greater impacts to some nations compared to others (Guimond et al , 2007).…”

Move more and bribe more? The impact of residential mobility on bribe‐giving

“…Previous research on bribery has often focused on individual differences such as moral disengagement (Alatas et al., 2009), norm (Lan & Hong, 2017), beliefs (e.g., Bai et al., 2016) and value (e.g., Tu et al., 2020), task features of bribery (e.g., Kobis et al., 2017), or features of dyadic‐level interaction partners (Gross et al., 2018). Our study extends previous literature on the psychological underpinnings of bribery from a socioecological perspective.…”

Gender inequality, corruption, and economic development

“…Our theory is based on the seminal studies by Dollar et al (2001) and Swamy et al (2001) and subsequent studies (Chen, 2013;Esarey & Chirillo, 2013;Esarey & Schwindt-Bayer, 2018, 2019Grimes & Wängnerud, 2012;Jha & Sarangi, 2018;Michailova & Melnykovska, 2009;Paweenawat, 2018;Samimi & Hosseinmardi, 2011;Treisman, 2007;Wängnerud, 2010) which found a negative correlation between women in politics and corruption using country/state-level studies. However, based on evidence from individual-level studies, there is no consensus on the proposition that women are intrinsically more honest than men (Alhassan-Alolo, 2007;Alatas et al, 2009;Bowman & Giligan, 2008;Debski et al, 2018;Esarey & Chirillo, 2013;Goetz, 2007;Lee & Guven, 2013;Mukherjee & Gokcekus, 2004;Schulze & Frank, 2003;Torgler & Valev, 2010;Rivas, 2013;Vijayalakshmi, 2008).…”