E-government and corruption: A cross-country survey

Abstract

This article aims to examine the effect of e-Government on corruption. Although e-Government in public administration has been studied in the context of efficiency enhancement, recent research has shed light on the causality between e-Government and corruption. However, the majority of previous studies have focused on one-country or anecdote-based analysis of which the results are not generalizable. Analyzing country-level data, this article attempts to provide a basis for a broader generalization regarding the impact of e-Government on corruption. Through controlling traditional causes of corruption such as the level of economic development, the size of government, and the degree of government regulation, the results of the empirical analysis of this article show that e-Government has a positive influence on corruption reduction. Considering that the notion of e-Government is broad in terms of areas and ranges, this article breaks down e-Government into the three components of telecommunication infrastructure, online participation, and online services. These three components are connected conceptually with ICT infrastructure, and transparency, accountability and empowerment driven by e-Government. Empirical results confirm that these three e-Government dimensions have a statistically significant influence on corruption. Findings suggest that e-Government can be regarded as a pragmatic anti-corruption strategy in the sense that most governments are eager to adopt e-Government systems. © 2014 by De Gruyter.