public sector
The public sector (also called the state sector) is the part of the economy composed of both public service
A public service is a service
Service may refer to:
Activities
:''(See the Religion section for religious activities)''
* Administr ...
corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty
Dishonesty is to act without honesty. It is used to describe a lack of probity, cheating, lying, or deliberately withholding information, or being deliberately deceptive or a lack in integrity, knavishness, ...
as an "abuse of entrusted power for private gain".CPI 2010: Long methodological brief, p. 2 The index is published annually by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International
Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered voluntary association
A voluntary group or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, common-interest association, association, or society) is a group of individuals who ente ...
since 1995.
The 2020 CPI, published in January 2021, currently ranks 180 countries "on a scale from 100 (very clean) to 0 (highly corrupt)" based on the situation between May 2019 and May 2020. Denmark
Denmark ( da, Danmark, ) is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the most populous and politically central Constituent state, constituent of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark, da, Kongeriget Danmark, a constitution ...
and New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and more than 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands, coveri ...
are jointly perceived as the least corrupt nations in the world, ranking consistently high among international financial transparency, while the most perceived corrupt countries in the world are Somalia
Somalia,, Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constitutio ...
and South Sudan
South Sudan (), officially known as the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa, East-Central Africa. It is bordered to the east by Ethiopia, to the north by Sudan, to the west by the Central African Republic, to the ...
, scoring 12 out of 100 in 2020.
Methods
Transparency International
Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered voluntary association
A voluntary group or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, common-interest association, association, or society) is a group of individuals who ente ...
commissioned the University of Passau
The University of Passau (''Universität Passau'' in German) is a public research university
A university ( la, universitas, 'a whole') is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) ed ...
's Johann Graf Lambsdorff to produce the CPI.
The 2012 CPI takes into account 16 different surveys and assessments from 12 different institutions.CPI 2010: Long methodological brief, p. 1 The 13 surveys/assessments are either business people opinion surveys or performance assessments from a group of analysts. Early CPIs used public opinion surveys. The institutions are:
* African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB or ADB) or (BAD) is a multilateral development finance institution. The AfDB was founded in 1964 and comprises three entities: The African Development Bank, the African Development Fund and the Nigeria Tr ...
(based in Côte d'Ivoire)
* Bertelsmann Foundation
The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent Foundation (nonprofit), foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. As the Bertel ...
(based in Germany)
* Economist Intelligence Unit
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of Economist Group providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analysis, such as monthly country reports, five-year country economic forecasts, coun ...
(based in the UK)
* Freedom House
Freedom House is a U.S.-based, U.S. government-funded non-profit non-governmental organization
File:Europe in a suitcase - UK.jpg, upright=1.3, alt=A roomful of people, Europe-Georgia Institute head George Melashvili addresses the audience a ...
(based in the US)
* Global Insight
Global Insight is an economics
Economics () is the social science that studies how people interact with value; in particular, the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), cons ...
(based in US)
* International Institute for Management Development
International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a business education school located in Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Vaud, Cug ...
(based in Switzerland)
* Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (based in Hong Kong)
* The PRS Group, Inc., (based in the US)
* World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF), based in Cologny, Geneva Canton, Switzerland, is an International non-governmental organization, international NGO, founded on 24 January 1971. The WEF's mission is stated as "committed to improving the state of ...
* World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution
An international financial institution (IFI) is a financial institution that has been established (or chartered) by more than one country, and hence is subject to international law. Its ow ...
* World Justice Project (based in US)
Countries need to be evaluated by at least three sources to appear in the CPI.CPI 2010: Long methodological brief, p. 7 The CPI measures perception of corruption due to the difficulty of measuring absolute levels of corruption.
Validity
A study published in 2002 found a "very strong significant correlation" between the Corruption Perceptions Index and two other proxies for corruption: black market activity and an overabundance of regulation. All three metrics also had a highly significant correlation with real gross domestic product per capita (RGDP/Cap); the Corruption Perceptions Index correlation with RGDP/Cap was the strongest, explaining over three fourths of the variance. (Note that a lower on this scale reflects greater corruption, so that countries with higher RGDPs generally had less corruption.) Alex Cobham of theCenter for Global Development
The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute
A research institute, research centre, or research center is an establishment founded for doing research. Research ins ...
reported in 2013 that "many of the staff and chapters" at Transparency International
Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered voluntary association
A voluntary group or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, common-interest association, association, or society) is a group of individuals who ente ...
, the publisher of the Corruption Perceptions Index, "protest internally" over concerns about the index. The original creator of the index, Johann Graf Lambsdorff, withdrew from work on the index in 2009, stating "In 1995 I invented the Corruption Perceptions Index and have orchestrated it ever since, putting TI on the spotlight of international attention. In August 2009 I have informed Cobus de Swardt, Managing Director of TI, that I am no longer available for doing the Corruption Perceptions Index."
Economic implications
Research papers published in 2007 and 2008 examined the economic consequences of corruption perception, as defined by the CPI. The researchers found a correlation between a higher CPI and higher long-term economic growth, as well as an increase inGDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary
In a 1786 James Gillray caricature, the plentiful money bags handed to King George III are contrasted with the beggar whose legs and arms were amputated, in the left corner">174x174px
Money is any ...
growth of 1.7% for every unit increase in a country's CPI score. Also shown was a power-law
Image:Long tail.svg, 300px, An example power-law graph that demonstrates ranking of popularity. To the right is the long tail, and to the left are the few that dominate (also known as the Pareto principle, 80–20 rule).
In statistics, a power law ...
dependence linking higher CPI score to higher rates of foreign investment in a country.
Rankings
Legend:2012–2020
2011
The 20 top countries or regions that were ranked as having the lowest perceived levels of corruption were (note scale of 10 to 1): The 20 bottom countries that were ranked as having the highest perceived levels of corruption were:2010
The 20 top countries or regions that were ranked as having the lowest perceived levels of corruption were (note scale of 10 down to 1): The 20 bottom countries that were ranked as having the highest perceived levels of corruption were:Assessments
The Index was methodologically criticized in the past, i.e. questioned based on itsmethodology
Methodology is the study of research methods, or, more formally, "'a contextual framework' for research, a coherent and logical scheme based on views, beliefs, and values, that guides the choices researchers
.
According to political scientist Dan Hough, three flaws in the Index include:
* Corruption is too complex a concept to be captured by a single score. For instance, the nature of corruption in rural Kansas will be different from that in the city administration of New York, yet the Index measures them in the same way.
* By measuring perceptions of corruption, as opposed to corruption itself, the Index may simply be reinforcing existing stereotypes and cliches.
* The Index only measures public sector corruption, ignoring the private sector. This, for instance, means the well-publicized Libor scandal or the VW emissions scandal are not counted as corrupt actions.
Media outlets frequently use the raw numbers as a yardstick for government performance, without clarifying what the numbers mean. The local Transparency International chapter in r other users
R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet
The ISO basic Latin alphabet is a Latin-script alphabet
A Latin-script alphabet (Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet) is an alphabet that ...
make".
It comprise ...Bangladesh
Bangladesh (; bn, বাংলাদেশ, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world, with a populati ...
disowned the index results after a change in methodology caused the country's scores to increase; media reported it as an "improvement".
In a 2013 article in ''Foreign Policy
''Foreign Policy'' is an American news publication, founded in 1970 and focused on global affairs, current events, and domestic and international policy. It produces content daily on its website, and in six print issues annually.
''Foreign Polic ...
'', Alex Cobham suggested that CPI should be dropped for the good of Transparency International. It argues that the CPI embeds a powerful and misleading elite bias in popular perceptions of corruption, potentially contributing to a vicious cycle and at the same time incentivizing inappropriate policy responses. Cobham writes, "the index corrupts perceptions to the extent that it's hard to see a justification for its continuing publication."
However, recent econometric analyses that have exploited the existence of natural experiments on the level of corruption and compared the CPI with other subjective indicators have found that, while not perfect, the CPI is argued to be broadly consistent with one-dimensional measures of corruption.
In the United States, many lawyers advise international businesses to consult the CPI when attempting to measure the risk of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law
The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitut ...
violations in different nations. This practice has been criticized by the ''Minnesota Journal of International Law'', which wrote that since the CPI may be subject to perceptual biases it therefore should not be considered by lawyers to be a measure of actual national corruption risk.Campbell, Stuart Vincent."Perception is Not Reality: The FCPA, Brazil, and the Mismeasurement of Corruption"
22 ''Minnesota Journal of International Law'' 1, p. 247 (2013). Transparency International also publishes the
Global Corruption BarometerThe Global Corruption Barometer published by Transparency International
Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered voluntary association
A voluntary group or union (also sometimes called a voluntary organization, common-interest a ...
, which ranks countries by corruption levels using direct surveys instead of perceived expert opinions, which has been under criticism for substantial bias from the powerful elite.
Transparency International has warned that a country with a clean CPI score may still be linked to corruption internationally. For example, while Sweden had the 3rd best CPI score in 2015, one of its state-owned companies, TeliaSonera
Telia Company AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator
A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a wireless service provider, wireless carrier, cellular company, or mobile network carrier, is a ...
, was facing allegations of bribery in Uzbekistan.CPI index 2015Accessed 3 February 2016.
See also
*Global Peace Index
Global Peace Index (GPI) is a report produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) which measures the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. The GPI ranks 172 independent states and territories (collectively accounti ...
*Democracy Index
The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of Economist Group providing forecasting and advisory services through research and analys ...
*List of freedom indices
This article contains a list of freedom indices produced by several non-governmental organization
File:Europe in a suitcase - UK.jpg, upright=1.3, alt=A roomful of people, Europe-Georgia Institute head George Melashvili addresses the audience at ...
References
External links
Official site
*
Corruption Perceptions Index 2013
Interactive world map of the Corruption Perception Index: 2000-2008
A Users' Guide to Measuring Corruption
critiques the CPI and similar indices.
Global Integrity Index
{{Corruption Anti-corruption activism Corruption Crime statistics International rankings Lists of countries, Corruption Lists of countries by population-related issue Perception