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Government Performance, Ethics and Corruption in the Global Competitiveness Index

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Governing Business Systems

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics ((SPBE))

Abstract

Public administration efficiency is an up to date topic. More in depth, the crucial point is how it is related, on the one hand, with a disruptive phenomenon like corruption and, on the other hand, with ethics. This study aims to show how public sector performance is affected by ethics and corruption. In order to explain such a relationship, this research run a cross-country analysis, where indices of public-sector performance are juxtaposed with corruption levels.

Using the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) from World Economic Forum, through a regression analysis on a dataset made by 140 countries in 2014–2015, this paper shed the light on the relationships between public-sector performance, ethics and corruption.

Results show a correlation between government efficiency and ethics. These findings could be an inspiration for government workers and managers in order to establish an ethical culture that can increase public performance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    From this point of view, public corruption is also responsible of lower investments, loss of tax revenues, monetary problems and composition of government expenditure.

  2. 2.

    Countries involved in this study are: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Rep., Denmark, Dominican Rep., Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Islamic Rep., Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea Rep., Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia FYR, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan China, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

  3. 3.

    Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey

  4. 4.

    Source: World Economic Forum, Executive Opinion Survey

  5. 5.

    As already said, our study used 2014–2015 GCI data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SEAS Department, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Davide Di Fatta

  2. University of Messina, Messina, Italy

    Roberto Musotto & Walter Vesperi

Authors
  1. Davide Di Fatta
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  2. Roberto Musotto
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  3. Walter Vesperi
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Correspondence to Davide Di Fatta .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Professor of Management, University of Palermo and Business Systems Laboratory, Palermo and Avellino, Italy

    Gandolfo Dominici

  2. Professor of Management, University of Rome “Link Campus”, Naples, Italy

    Manlio Del Giudice

  3. Law and Economics of Productive Activities, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Rosa Lombardi

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Di Fatta, D., Musotto, R., Vesperi, W. (2018). Government Performance, Ethics and Corruption in the Global Competitiveness Index. In: Dominici, G., Del Giudice, M., Lombardi, R. (eds) Governing Business Systems. Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66036-3_8

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