Can the Country's Perception of Corruption Change? Evidence of Corruption Perception Index

Abstract

The most prominent and well-known global index of corruption is the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), released annually by Transparency International (TI). The model we propose is the first approach to explore the quantile relationship between CPI rankings in consecutive years. This study utilizes the quantile causality approach to investigate whether corruption levels impact the following years over the 2012–2019 period. We show that CPI itself has a significant impact on the forthcoming years. It is not easy to change the scores of corruption in the most corrupt countries and the least corrupt countries. However, in countries with moderate corruption, the evaluation of corruption may be significantly improved (or worsened). To our best knowledge, the phenomenon is rarely discussed in the literature and is also an important contribution.

Keywords:

• Corruption perception index
• granger causality
• integrity
• quantile regression

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.