Corruption index: even UN-haters must admit it's good for somethin

[Thecla]

A recent study by Fisman and Miguel used the parking fines accumulated by immune UN diplomats to estimate corruption by country.

A link to the full article is there, but here --- according to the study --- are the countries of the most and least corrupt UN diplomats:

1 KUWAIT
2 EGYPT
3 CHAD
4 SUDAN
5 BULGARIA
6 MOZAMBIQUE
7 ALBANIA
8 ANGOLA
9 SENEGAL
10 PAKISTAN
11 IVORY COAST
12 ZAMBIA
13 MOROCCO
14 ETHIOPIA
15 NIGERIA
16 SYRIA
17 BENIN
18 ZIMBABWE
19 CAMEROON
20 MONTENEGRO & SERBIA
.
.
.
125 UNITED KINGDOM
126 NETHERLANDS
127 UNTED ARAB EMIRATES
128 AUSTALIA
129 AZERBAIJAN
130 BURKINA FASO
131 CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
132 CANADA
133 COLOMBIA
134 DENMARK
135 ECUADOR
136 GREECE
137 IRELAND
138 ISRAEL
139 JAMAICA
140 JAPAN
141 LATVIA
142 NORWAY
143 OMAN
144 PANAMA
145 SWEDEN
146 TURKEY

[Jester]

I really have to wonder about any methodology that says Colombia is slightly less corrupt than Canada, ranking among the best in the world.

-Jester

Edit, glancing at the list some more:

Turkey. Colombia. Panama. Israel. All ranking well within the top quarter. Hm.... is there some kind of *pattern* here? Naw. Must just be my imagination.

[Occhidiangela]

A recent study by Fisman and Miguel used the parking fines accumulated by immune UN diplomats to estimate corruption by country.

A link to the full article is there, but here --- according to the study --- are the countries of the most and least corrupt UN diplomats:

Do these morons understand the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony?

EDIT: Was this study funded privately, or by a government grant? This erudition smacks of mental masturbation of the most refined sort. I read through it. I was bombarded with the usual ejcaulations from what an infamous dictator called "erudite apes." I arose from my desk and got more coffee. We had no hemlock, or I'd have drunk that in despair over the civilized world's habit of picking the fly feces from the pepper.

Occhi

[NiteFox]

God dammit, nowhere near corrupt enough.

125th on the list? We should really be trying harder.

[oldmandennis]

Central African Republic is not corrupt?

Diamonds constitute the most important export of the CAR, frequently accounting for 40-55% of export revenues, but an estimated 30-50% of the diamonds produced each year leave the country clandestinely.

[Rhydderch Hael]

Do these morons understand the difference between a misdemeanor and a felony?

EDIT: Was this study funded privately, or by a government grant? This erudition smacks of mental masturbation of the most refined sort. I read through it. I was bombarded with the usual ejcaulations from what an infamous dictator called "erudite apes." I arose from my desk and got more coffee. We had no hemlock, or I'd have drunk that in despair over the civilized world's habit of picking the fly feces from the pepper.

Occhi

From what I glean from it, this is not a clinical or objective study— and it never was intended to be. It's simply a smear campaign to shame the parking violators into changing their ways. The City of New York can do little else through due process, so this is a grass-roots approach.

[Occhidiangela]

From what I glean from it, this is not a clinical or objective study— and it never was intended to be. It's simply a smear campaign to shame the parking violators into changing their ways. The City of New York can do little else through due process, so this is a grass-roots approach.

Let the air out of their tires when you find them illegally parked.

Occhi

[oldmandennis]

I guess I should have RTFA.

I heard they were given permission to start towing the suckers, and it cleared most of it up.

[GenericKen]

I say the theory is fundamentally flawed. Corruption doesn't directly correlate with unpaid parking tickets (it helps to keep a low profile when skimming heavier stuff).


If anything, the study reveals a rather interesting trend across cultures' strictures and notions of "face". Coming from The Economist, though, I'm not surprised at the misconception and gross generalization.

[Fragbait]

I say the theory is fundamentally flawed. Corruption doesn't directly correlate with unpaid parking tickets (it helps to keep a low profile when skimming heavier stuff).
If anything, the study reveals a rather interesting trend across cultures' strictures and notions of "face". Coming from The Economist, though, I'm not surprised at the misconception and gross generalization.

Hi,

the underlying study can be viewed here (219 kb pdf).
If you read it, you will notice that they don't claim that corruption "directly correlates" with unpaid parking violations, but that

The act of parking illegally fits well with a standard definition of corruption,
i.e., “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain,”2 suggesting that the comparison of parking violations
by diplomats from different societies serves as a plausible measure of the extent of corruption social
norms or a corruption “culture”.

I think while this study may not give us a direct correlation between corruption and diplomate parking violation (what would we do with such a correlation anyway? Teach our own diplomats not to commit parking violations, so that we look less corrupt to others?), what it does give us is a closer look at the morality of different countries and their diplomats respectively.

If the official representatives of a country choose to violate law because the authorities "can't prosecute us anyway, hehe." (<- exaggerated wording), this indeed is quite revealing. Of course for the study to be somewhat representative, not only the behaviour of embassadors in New York but in many other cities as well ought to be investigated.

Greetings, Fragbait