Petty corruption and social desirability in Peru: a mixed methods approach

• In Event: Corruption and Accountability in Latin America

Abstract

The article focuses on understanding the intersubjective narratives about petty corruption displayed by Peruvian citizens, where corruption is a normalized practice. We aim for a descriptive approach that uses mixed methods as a way of deepening our understanding about the social desirability of petty corruption practices such as bribery (“coima”). First, to determine the existence of social desirability bias towards corruption, we discuss the results from two list experiments. The first one had a control group with four non-sensitive items and a treatment group with an additional sensitive item referencing to petty corruption (“gave gifts, tips, bribes or coimas to a state officer”). The second list experiment used two treatment groups in addition to the control group. These treatment groups received an additional sensitive item that was almost identical except for the phrasing, one used the word “gift” and the other used the word “bribe”. This allowed us to test if the use of different language affected the disposition to report corruption, since the word “gift” is less morally charged than the word “bribe”. In both experiments, we found no significant difference on the level of report, which indicates the absence of a social desirability bias towards petty corruption in the Peruvian case. Second, to dig deeper into these findings, we conducted 6 focus groups in which we asked participants to define corruption and describe their experiences with it. Overall, we found that participants were willing to accept their participation in corrupt exchanges, even when they were active participants.

Authors

• Karla Viviana Baraybar Hidalgo, University of Oxford

• Yamile Guibert, Cornell University