Dissemin is shutting down on January 1st, 2025

Published in

The University of Chicago Press, Journal of Political Economy, 6(115), p. 1020-1048, 2007

DOI: 10.1086/527495

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Corruption, Norms, and Legal Enforcement: Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets

Journal article published in 2007 by Raymond Fisman, Edward Miguel ORCID
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Orange circle
Published version: archiving restricted
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

We study cultural norms and legal enforcement in controlling corruption by analyzing the parking behavior of United Nations officials in Manhattan. Until 2002, diplomatic immunity protected UN diplomats from parking enforcement actions, so diplomats' actions were constrained by cultural norms alone. We find a strong effect of corruption norms: diplomats from high-corruption countries (on the basis of existing survey-based indices) accumulated significantly more unpaid parking violations. In 2002, enforcement authorities acquired the right to confiscate diplomatic license plates of violators. Unpaid violations dropped sharply in response. Cultural norms and (particularly in this context) legal enforcement are both important determinants of corruption. (c) 2007 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved..