Economic and Social Consequences of Corruption in Transition Economies

Abstract

Corruption is one of the perturbing issues that has manifested itself in almost every part of the globe. Its impact through direct and indirect means does not only affect a person but the entire population which can further extend to generations. Many scholars in light of its undesirable effect have undertaken studies to create awareness of the degree of the impact corruption is causing or can cause, both socially and economically. However, countries with transition economies have been vulnerable to corruption due to factors like privatization and restitution during the transition process. As such, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland which are European countries with transition economies where studied with regards to the socio-economic consequence of corruption. A quantitative research method was employed in the research design and the analyses of this thesis work. The analyses revealed that the level of corruption was significantly different among the countries for the selected period. The social and economic consequences were evident in their level of Foreign Direct Investment, Gross National Expenditure, GDP growth, Human Development Index and Rule of law. Also, the urgency to curb corruption was seen to be very low despite most of the countries performing poor in recent corruption ratings