Corruption and Financial Management: Evidence from Korean Local Governments*

Academic researchers have paid lots of attention to corruption and there have been therefore numerous studies on the subject. Withal the rich literature on corruption, it is hard to find studies trying to investigate the effects of corruption on financial management of local governments. This article empirically tests the argument that corruption undermines local government’s incentives for good financial management and increases the debt level with a unique Korean index of corruption, Integrity Scores published by Anti-Corruption & Civil Right Commission of Korea. According to OLS analyses, integrity has a negative and significant effect on the debt ratio. This supports the idea that the more local governments are corrupted, the less incentive they have to maintain a sound financial condition.