The effect of institutional characteristics and social norms on corruption in healthcare

Parvanova, Iva (2024) The effect of institutional characteristics and social norms on corruption in healthcare. Governance. ISSN 0952-1895

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Abstract

Corruption in healthcare is widespread and consequential. Informal payments (IPs) are a common form of petty corruption, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Using data from the Life in Transition Survey encompassing 33 countries across Europe and Central Asia, I analyze the prevalence and reasons behind IPs made to public health providers. In addition to individual- and system-level factors often used in literature, I also introduce a latent measure of social norms related to high levels of corruption. These are associated with a significantly higher prevalence of paying informally. This paper also bridges a gap between the corruption literature and health-related research by introducing a typology of IPs based on why they were made. I find that the association between health system characteristics and IPs prevalence differs based on the reason for payment. This difference is further exacerbated by the existence of corruption-related social norms. The results of this analysis highlight the need to revisit existing anti-corruption policies and align them to the underlying social norms.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14680491
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Author(s)
Divisions:	LSE Health
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences
Date Deposited:	10 Apr 2024 09:45
Last Modified:	20 Dec 2024 00:53
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/122599

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