1. Corruption

2. What is corruption?
Corruption can be defined as a kind of criminal offense or dishonesty that is carried out by people who are in power of authority.
These people often seek a benefit from their unethical behavior, which often comes in the form of money.
Corruption can have several adverse effects for the local economy as well as for the local population.
The causes, effects and solutions regarding corruption are examined in the following.

3. Causes for corruption Poverty Threats Protection money
Low levels of media freedom
Lack of education
Traditions
Cultural values
Low salaries of public employees
Lack of ethics
Religious beliefs
Lack of control mechanisms

4. Poverty Poverty is one big cause for corruption.
Poor countries often suffer from high levels of corruption since it is simply more attractive for people to accept bribing if you have less to lose.
If you just have a shitty job which you do not value at all, you are much more likely to risk your job and make additional money from corruption than if you have a well-paid job which you like.
Moreover, if your salary is not high enough to provide for your family, it is quite tempting to engage in corruption activities in order to make an additional income.
Thus, poverty often indirectly translates into a higher probability for corruption.

5. Threats Some people may also be forced to accept bribe money.
In poor developing countries with insufficient control mechanisms, there are often criminal organizations which control certain industries.
If you are working in one of those industries, you will often not be able to fight corruption since you will be forced into such kinds of activities, independent of if you want it or not.

6. Protection money Protection money can be another cause for corruption.
In some regions, people and small businesses have to pay a share of their income in order to be safe from physical or also psychological attacks.
Thus, many small businesses are forced into bribing activities since they know that if they do not comply with the protection money scheme, they will in danger of severe damage.

7. Low levels of media freedom
Corruption can also be supported by a low level of media freedom.
People can be greatly influenced by media companies, since they often watch and listen to news channels and read newspapers.
If the companies who produce these kinds of media are controlled by the government, it is quite likely that they propagate information in line with government interests.
This could also lead to an increase in corruption since the existence of corruptive activities may be denied through media channels even if the government is highly corrupt.
Thus, the local population may not even be aware that there might be a high level of corruption since governments are able to propagate unobjective information through media channels.

8. Lack of education
Corruption can also flourish due to a lack of education of the local population.
If people are well-educated, it is less likely that corruption can happen on a significant scale since people might get aware of it and will try to end corruption at all cost.
However, if there is only a low level of education, people may not be able to recognize the level of corruption that is actually present in their countries.
Thus, it may be easy for politicians or other officials to participate in corruptive activities and to get away with it.

9. Traditions
Corruptive activities may also be masked by politicians who argue that these activities are part of traditions.
For instance, this could come in the form that politicians or other state officials get payments for certain occasions.
Even though these payments may be due to corruption, the population may still accept it since it is masked as traditional.

10. Cultural values
There might also be cultural values in some countries which support the development of corruptive actions.
For instance, in some countries, corruptive activities may be regarded as quite normal since people are used to it for decades and do not complain about it anymore.
In these countries where corruption is simply accepted by the local population, it can easily flourish since nobody wants to take a stand against it.

11. Low salaries of public employees
Public employees, especially in poor developing countries, are often paid quite low wages.
Therefore, they have a big incentive to fall for corruption since they can earn much more money by doing so.
Moreover, these employees have a higher incentive for corruptive activities since they feel that even if they are caught and lose their job, they would not be harmed too much since they do not value their job due to the low salary.

12. Lack of ethics
Depending on your parenting and education, you may also suffer from a lack of ethics.
You may simply not be aware that corruption is something you should avoid from an inside motivation if you never learned about the adverse effect of corruption or if you simply do not care.
Thus, if you have not learned ethical behavior, you might be more willing to participate in corruption activities.

13. Religious beliefs
Some governments or other state officials often may use religion as a pretense for corruptive activities.
This could come in the form of additional payments for politicians on certain religious events.
It could also come in the form that governments use part of the money that is meant to be spent for religious purposes for increasing their own salary instead.

14. Lack of control mechanisms
Another reason for the spread of corruption is a lack of control mechanisms.
If officials or companies do not have to fear consequences from corruptive activities due to a lack of controls, they may be more eager to engage in those kinds of activities.
In many countries, there are also quite low fines for corruption, which makes it even more tempting to engage in corruptive actions.

15. Effects of corruption Insecurity for the local population
Lack of investment incentives
High public spending
Reduction of effectiveness of public spending
Skilled worker shortage
Insufficient public infrastructure
Insufficient social security
Insufficient healthcare
Lower tax revenue
Unstable tax rates
Inflation
Lack of transparency
Economic impact

16. Insecurity for the local population
People living in regions that are heavily affected by corruption will often feel quite insecure since they do not know whom they can trust.
This include many areas of their daily life.
For instance, people may not be brave enough to speak up against corruption in their jobs since they do not know if the company they are working for is involved in corruptive activities.

17. Lack of investment incentives
International investors will often refrain from investing in areas where corruption is prevalent.
This is due to the fact that investors want to make sure that their money is safe and that they do not get dispossessed due to corruptive activities.
Moreover, investments in countries with a high corruption level is often avoided by investors since in those countries, there is a significant risk for excessive inflation and financial as well as political instability.
Therefore, corruption may lead investors to avoid the respective countries, which in turn may slow down the economic growth for those countries.

18. High public spending
Due to corruption, public spending is usually quite high in the affected countries.
This is due to the fact that with corruption, governments usually give jobs related to public infrastructure to companies who pay the most bribe money, not to companies which would carry out the job at the lowest price.
Therefore, government spending tends to be higher in countries where corruption is prevalent.

19. Reduction of effectiveness of public spending
Corruption also contributes to inefficient government spending.
Since politicians and other officials are often not supervised on how government spending is distributed, there is a big opportunity for corruptive behavior.
Thus, politicians may often benefit from bribe money in return for giving certain financial favors to firms.

20. Skilled worker shortage
In countries with a significant corruption issue, there will often also be a shortage of skilled workers.
These workers will try to leave the country as soon as possible since they know they can earn more money and have better working conditions in countries with lower levels of corruption.
Moreover, countries which are known for high levels of corruption also have more difficulties to find companies which want to open branches in these countries, which further contribute to the skilled worker shortage.

21. Insufficient public infrastructure
Corruption may also lead to the development of insufficient public infrastructure.
In countries with high corruption levels, governments will often have not enough money left for infrastructure projects.
This may lead to a lack of hospitals, bad street conditions and further other issues which hurt the local population.

22. Insufficient social security
Social security schemes are usually quite expensive for countries to implement and to maintain.
Especially in countries which suffer from significant corruption, there will often be not enough money in the public budget to provide sufficient social security to the local population.
Therefore, if locals become unemployed, they will often not be able to get financial support form the government and may end up homeless since they will no longer be able to pay their rent.

23. Insufficient healthcare
Proper health insurance is crucial in order to get proper medical treatment in case of injuries or diseases.
However, in many countries, there is no official health insurance provided by the government since there is not enough money left due to corruptive activities.
Therefore, if people want to get proper health insurance, they have to insure them through private insurance companies.
However, these companies often charge quite high insurance premiums, which most of the locals will not be able to afford.
Thus, corruption may also lead to a low level of health insurance and healthcare.

24. Lower tax revenue
Due to high levels of corruption, many companies will refrain from opening branches in the affected regions.
Therefore, tax revenues in those regions may be quite limited since there will simply be not too many companies that can be taxed.
Moreover, due to corrupt state officials, some companies might be able to avoid paying taxes at all which will further decrease the tax revenue for governments in those countries.

25. Unstable tax rates
Due to lower tax revenues in countries with high levels of corruption, tax rates may be quite unstable.
Governments may be forced to increase the tax rates since they have to compensate the financial losses from tax avoidance.
Therefore, for a significant part of the local population, tax rates may be increased to compensate for the tax revenue lost due to corruptive activities of big companies.

26. Inflation
Inflation is a big issue in countries which tend to have high levels of corruption.
Since people in these countries often have lost trust in their politicians and in their local currency, these people often try to exchange their local currencies into stable currencies like USD or EUR for saving purposes.
However, by doing so, the local currency will depreciate and inflation levels will increase.
A high inflation implies several financial issues, both for the government but also for private persons.

27. Lack of transparency
In many countries, there is a lack of transparency when it comes to government spending.
Often, there is no official competition when it comes to assigning government projects to companies due to corruption.
However, politicians are often able to hide this corruptive process from the public since processes are quite non-transparent and the general public will not be able to comprehend why a company will be contracted for certain projects.

28. Economic impact
There are also several adverse impacts related to corruption on the local economy.
People will often suffer from significant levels of unemployment since corporations will not be willing to open branches in these regions due to political and financial instability.
Moreover, living standards in these regions may be quite low since people will not participate sufficiently from their work due to the spending that are due to corruption.

29. Solutions for corruption
End freedom from punishment
Make information flows more transparent
Better control mechanisms regarding public spending
Reporting platforms regarding corruption
Community events against corruption
Organize a protest
Control money flows
Start petitions
Election monitoring
Increase wages for state employees
Improve education
Improve the spread of information
Fight poverty
Transnational measures

30. End freedom from punishment
Many politicians enjoy the freedom from punishment as long as they are in charge.
However, this leads to a huge incentive for those politicians to engage in corruption since they do not have to fear to go to jail, even if they get caught.
Thus, by ending this freedom from punishment would lower the incentive to engage in corruptive activities since politicians would fear the related consequences.

31. Make information flows more transparent
When it comes to fighting corruption, it is crucial that there are proper information flows, both within and also across government institutions.
Only then will it be possible to identify expenses that might be due to corruption and to stop these expenses in the future.

32. Better control mechanisms regarding public spending
Government spending should also be subject to higher levels of supervision in many countries.
If these controls become stricter, it will be harder to engage in corruptive activities since there is a higher danger of getting caught and punished.

33. Reporting platforms regarding corruption
Reporting platforms should be set up where people can report any kind of corruptive behavior they experienced.
By doing so, the control mechanisms regarding corruption can further be enhanced and corruption may further be mitigated.

34. Community events against corruption
People have to be made aware on the level of corruption that might exist in their regions.
Many people may even not know how corrupt their politicians really are since politicians often control the media channels and therefore can fool and manipulate people.
By setting up community against corruption, people may realize how big the problem really is and might take measures in order to fight corruption.

35. Organize a protest
You can also contribute your part by organizing protests or also by taking part in protests against corruption in your country.
By doing so, the pressure on politicians to change the system in a way that corruption is mitigated will increase.

36. Control money flows
In order to be able to fight corruption and the related adverse effects, it is crucial that money flows are controlled.
A big fraction of the money related to corruptive actions will be invested in several kinds of assets, including investments abroad.
As long as people do not have to prove where their money comes from, it is easy to reinvest this corruption money.
Thus, it is crucial that money flows are supervised in an effective manner in order to mitigate corruption.

37. Start petitions
You can also try to start a petition against corruption.
By doing so, you may raise the awareness of the general public on the corruption issue and therefore increase the pressure on politicians to take measures in order to solve the problem.
The more people join your petition, the higher the pressure on politicians will be to change the political system.

38. Election monitoring
In order to fight corruption, it is also crucial that election processes are monitored by several independent control instances.
By doing so, it can be assured that corruption cannot play a major role in the election outcome.
That said, in countries who lack these control instances, there is often significant corruption related to the outcome of an election.

39. Increase wages for state employees
The lower the wage for state employees, the lower their incentive to refrain from accepting corruption.
These state employees will not value their job too much and will therefore be much more open for corruption in order to increase their income.
By raising the wage for state officials and politicians, there will be a bigger incentive to avoid corruption since these officials will likely value their jobs more and will fear to lose them in case they get caught.
Thus, raising wages may be another way to mitigate corruption.

40. Improve education Education is key to mitigate corruptive actions.
The local population has to be aware that corruption is a big problem in their countries in order to be willing to fight it.
Thus, people have to be educated in order to be able to recognize the level of corruption that might be prevalent.
This education should start but should not be confined to school kids.
We also have to educate adults in order to force the pressure on governments to end corruption.

41. Improve the spread of information
Spreading information is crucial when it comes to fighting corruption.
The best tool to spread information in our nowadays society is social media.
It is free and you are also able to reach many people by using it.
You can also organize protests and start petitions using social media and other people can join you, even if they live in cities far away from your home.

42. Fight poverty
It is also crucial to fight poverty to mitigate the corruption issue.
The poorer people are, the more likely they are to engage in corruptive activities since they have not much to lose and have to provide for their families.
If this is not possible through a regular job, these people may join activities related to corruption in order to make enough money.

43. Transnational measures
Corruption has to be fought on a global scale.
Countries should refrain from trading with countries which are known for high levels of corruption.
By doing so, the pressure for politicians in those countries increase to mitigate corruption.

44. Conclusion
Corruption still is a big issue in many countries worldwide, especially in poor developing countries.
There are many measures we can fight corruption, both on a political level but also through actions in our daily life.
People have to be made aware about the corruption issue and have to take actions to mitigate corruption and the adverse related effects.
By doing so, the living standards in the affected regions can be increased significantly.

45. Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption
corruption/we-are-all-affected/
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