Title: The effect of economic freedom on corruption: the case of South Asian countries

Authors: Abeer Khandker

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, ASA University, Bangladesh

Abstract: The lack of effective institutions can give rise to corrupt activities, and many studies have shown corruption to be detrimental to economic growth. On the other hand, institutional efficiency depends very much on the freedom to choose the necessary economic direction and action, since proper governance of institutions requires timely and active administration. Hence, economic freedom is theoretically assumed to have a strong effect on corruption. This study is an effort to find out just how economic freedom affects corruption in South Asian countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Both qualitative and quantitative methods have been applied, and the results suggest that there is some sort of a relationship between the two phenomena, and increased economic freedom can lead to lower levels of corruption.

Keywords: South Asia; corruption; economic freedom; Bangladesh; Bhutan; India; Maldives; Nepal; Pakistan; Sri Lanka.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2015.069674

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2015 Vol.9 No.4, pp.403 - 414

Received: 07 Feb 2014
Accepted: 04 Jul 2014
Published online: 29 May 2015 *

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