The experience of corruption: a comparative global analysis

Corruption is a major problem of governance in countries with most of the world's population. The project will go beyond existing measures of the perception of corruption by analysing the actual experience of corruption as reported in more than 500 sample surveys from more than 130 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. Each survey asks a battery of key questions about contacts with health, education, police and other municipal services, and whether any bribes were paid. Survey data makes it possible to test whether corruption is more of a problem for people who have high or low incomes, more or less education, live in urban or rural areas, or differ in age or gender. The project partner is Transparency International's Secretariat in Berlin. It will cooperate in the dissemination of the results. The project draws on Richard Rose's decades of experience in designing and analysing surveys across continents and as a pro bono adviser to Transparency International. William Mishler will be responsible for sophisticated multi-level statistical analysis.