19. Monika Bauhr on need vs. greed corruption and how it is linked to gender

Our guest this week is Monika Bauhr, Associate Professor at the Quality of Government at the University of Gothenburg (https://tinyurl.com/s37x2lp). The interview kicks off with Monika describing how her work on climate change led her to get interested in corruption, showing how the technical solutions for Climate change were known but that it often lacked political will to implement them. The interview further covers Monika’s three main areas of interest: 1. Transparency Monika was inspired by the diverse effects of transparency on corruption. In her work she has zoomed in on when transparency succeeds to lower corruption and when it can conversely lead to a demoralization effect. 2. Types of corruption Monika bemoans that frequently the average effects of corruption (such as the country level Corruption Perception Index) are used as a measure of corruption. She argues that more refined measures, distinguishing between corruption types is needed. Monika’s work has particularly focused on the distinction between need vs. greed corruption (see https://tinyurl.com/vwgjryo). The interview also points out the challenges to operationalize these different forms of corruption. 3. Gender and corruption Monika’s third main field of interest lies on the link between gender and corruption, inspired by one of the most consistent finding that the share of women in government lowers petty corruption. Monika and Matthew discuss different theories help to explain the multifaceted ways in which gender and corruption are related.