ECONOMIC REFORMS AND THEIR IMPACTS ON INFORMAL PAYMENTS FOR GOVERNMENT SERVICES IN TRANSITION COUNTRIES

摘要

This article examines whether economic reforms in transition countries reduce the incidence of informal payments to government officials. Using the 2009 EBRD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) data, empirical models of the likelihood and frequency that firms are asked to make informal payments are estimated. Eight measures of economic reform developed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) are also included in the analysis, both individually and as a combined index of overall reform, to test whether reforms reduce informal payments. Firm, country, and economic reform factors are all found to have an impact. In particular, the overall reform index and all but one of the eight EBRD reform indices are found to significantly reduce informal payments. The marginal effect of a one-standard-deviation increase in the overall reform index is to reduce the probability of a firm reporting that it gives a gift by 2.5% and reduce the probability that the firm reports that gift giving is a usual practice in its industry by 4%. Enterprise reforms, markets and trade reforms, financial sector reforms, and infrastructure reforms all have the effect of reducing the likelihood and frequency of informal payments.