Neo‐patrimonialism and Corruption: Evidence from 8,436 Firms in 17 Countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13023
• Published date: 01 July 2019
• Date: 01 July 2019

580 Public Administration Review • July | Augu st 20 19

Abstract: This article introduces four innovations to the literature on administrative corruption. First, it employs

a neo-patrimonialism framework by addressing measurement, identification, and endogeneity issues that beset the

literature. Second, unlike cross-country studies, it uses firms as the unit of analysis. Third, unlike the conventional

literature, the article uses large-n (n = 8,436) panel survey data of key informants in 17 countries in sub-Saharan

Africa. Finally, unlike the conventional literature, the article focuses on a particular type of corruption: the supply and

demand for bribery. The authors find that the uncertainty associated with neo-patrimonialism has a strong, positive,

and significant effect on the propensity of civil servants to demand bribes in exchange for services and for firms to

supply bribes in exchange for winning government contracts. The results are robust to controls on the characteristics of

firms and their regulatory environments. The article concludes with implications for research and practice.

Evidence for Practice

• For donors, there is a higher risk of corruption in politically unstable countries and in specific agencies, such

as utilities and licensing/regulatory agencies.

• For policy makers, ensuring security of tenure and removing uncertainty in the careers of civil servants could

go some way toward minimizing (although not eliminating) the incidence of demand-side bribery. Likewise,

reducing uncertainty in public bidding (through transparent procedures) could reduce the incentives for

firms to supply bribes.

• For researchers, we note that the dynamics of bribery vary between the demand and supply sides, and it is

worth paying attention to the type of transaction involved (demand- or supply-side bribery, embezzlement,

political or regulatory capture, etc.) as well as the data to be used (firm-level, over-time, large-n data as

opposed to country-level, small-n, generalized perception data).

Eduardo Araral

National University of Singapore

Anton Pak

University of Queensland

Riccardo Pelizzo

Nazarbayev University

Xun Wu

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Neo-patrimonialism and Corruption: Evidence from 8,436

Firms in 17 Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

We introduce four innovations to the

literature on administrative corruption.

First, we employ a neo-patrimonialism

framework by addressing measurement, identification,

and endogeneity issues that beset the literature.

Second, unlike cross-country studies, we use the firm

as our unit of analysis. Third, unlike the conventional

literature, we use a large-n (n = 8,436) panel data

survey of key informants in 17 countries in sub-

Saharan Africa, a region closely associated with

neo-patrimonialism and corruption. Finally, unlike

the conventional literature, which assumes that all

corruption is the same, we focus on a particular type

of corruption—the supply and demand for bribery.

Neo-patrimonialism, our explanatory variable, is a

type of regime that facilitates corruption or the abuse

of public power for private gain. Beekers and

van Gool define neo-patrimonialism as a type of regime

“in which ruling elites use the state for personal

enrichment and profit from a public administration

that is patently unstable, inefficient, nontransparent

and that fails to distribute public resources to

large segments of the population” (2012, 1). Neo-

patrimonialism, in fact, has been widely used as a

model to describe politics and public administration

in Africa and developing countries (Beekers and

van Gool 2012; Bratton and van de Walle 1997;

Erdmann and Engel 2006; Pitcher, Moran, and

Johnston 2009; Scott 1972; Solhjell 2013). Clientelism

is an associated concept, defined by Stokes “as giving

material goods in return for electoral support, where

the criterion of distribution that the patron uses is

simply: did you/will you support me?” (2011, 648).

However, neo-patrimonialism as an analytic framework

is faced with outstanding conceptual, methodological,

and empirical issues (see Erdmann and Engel 2006;

Pitcher, Moran, and Johnston 2009). The first issue is

conceptual. Pitcher, Moran, and Johnston (2009) note

that the term “neo-patrimonialism” has been used in the

literature in at least four interrelated ways, and as a result

Xun Wu is professor in the Division of

Social Science and Division of Environment

and director of the Institute for Public Policy

at Hong Kong University of Science and

Technology. He is a policy scientist with

a strong interest in the linkage between

policy analysis and public management. His

research interests include policy innovations,

water resource management, health policy

reform, and anticorruption, and his work

has been published in top journals in his

fields of study.

E-mail: wuxun@ust.hk

Riccardo Pelizzo is associate professor

in the Graduate School of Public Policy

at Nazarbayev University. A political

development specialist, he holds master’s

and doctoral degrees in political science

from Johns Hopkins University.

E-mail: rpelizzo@gmail.com

Anton Pak is a PhD candidate in the

School of Economics at the University of

Queensland. His primary field is applied

microeconometrics, with particular interests

in the economics of health and political

economy.

E-mail: a.pak@uq.edu.au

Eduardo Araral is both an academic

and a practitioner. He has received

fellowships from the research centers of

three Nobel laureates in economics, the

Ostrom Prize for the Governance of the

Commons, and a Fulbright PhD award.

He has published in

World Development,

Journal of Public Administration Research

and Theory, Governance, Policy Sciences,

and

Water Resources Research,

among

others. His research focuses on governance

issues: corruption, collective action,

common pool resources, water, and new

technologies.

E-mail: ed_araral@nus.edu.sg

Research Article

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 79, Iss. 4, pp. 580–590. © 2019 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13023.