Korruption och tillväxt : Ett globalt perspektiv på samband mellan korruption och ekonomisk tillväxt

Sammanfattning: Countries are different from one another. Both in size, culture, religion, living standards, and that may be one of the explanation to why countries have different economic conditions. This study deepens in economic growth, which is a measure of the country's productivity. Countries capital, population growth, educational level and the effectiveness of the institutions are analyzed in order to be able to control the country’s economic growths. Corruption is the central, independent variable expressed by using a corruption index. Lately, it has been large discussions in the media regarding Sweden's corruption, mainly in public sector, which has aroused interest in a study on the topic of corruption.  The purpose of this study is to investigate how corruption affects a country's economic growth.  The purpose is studied by an econometric multiple regression analysis using panel data. The study covers 121 countries in the world, which account for 88% of the world's population. 70% of the selected countries are characterized as poor and the remaining as wealthy. The null hypothesis is that there is not an association between corruption and economic growth and the alternative hypothesis is that there is an association. During a closer analysis of the results, the study can show that the economic growth of wealthy countries is negatively affected by an increased corruption level, while the economic growth of poor countries is positively affected by an increased level of corruption. The result of this study confirms previous studies in the near past. However, the fact that this study can show differences between rich and poor countries, is assessed to make this study unique.