Abstract
This presentation analyses the control of corruption as measured by the World Bank and the possible causes for the level of corruption on European level. Theories explaining the causes of corruption, namely GDP per capita, income inequality, generalized trust, and share of Protestants in the population are discussed and then tested by pooling of the data and conducting OLS regression analysis on the full sample of the European Social Survey in the period 2002-2012.
The analysis shows mixed results, especially concerning income inequality. The differences between countries with and without history of communist rule are then tested.
This micro-macro model shows that there are huge differences between countries with communist legacy and countries with a longer history of democracy and rule of law. The effects of each independent variable are discussed.