Corruption, Deprivation and Economic Development in sub-Saharan Africa

This thesis broadly examines the impact of lived corruption experiences on healthcare deprivation and tax evasion in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). While Chapter 1 introduces the thesis, Chapter 2 examines how corruption causes healthcare deprivation in 29 SSA countries. Employing the fifth, sixth and seventh waves of the Afrobarometer survey spanning 2011-2018, I find that corruption in the form of bribe payments within the healthcare sector increases healthcare deprivation. Additionally, corruption experienced in sectors outside health such as education, police, public utilities and identification authorities, have adverse spillovers on healthcare deprivation. Furthermore, I show that corruption impacts healthcare deprivation through two key channels: Loss of income and loss of trust in public institutions. Chapter 3 utilises individual-level datasets to explore the effect of people’s lived corruption experiences on their propensity to evade taxes. I show that the likelihood of tax evasion rises by 19–39.5 percentage points for individuals who have paid bribes to government officials in various sectors–health, education, police, public utilities and identification authorities, compared to their counterparts who have never been extorted. Chapter 4 documents the spillover effects of firm-level corruption (unrelated to taxation) on tax evasion decisions, with evidence from 17 SSA economies. Chapter 4 also examines (a) whether and how corruption in tax agencies impacts tax evasion and (b) the key mediating mechanisms through which corruption impact tax evasion among firms. In contrast to the extant literature, I demonstrate that while corruption involving tax authorities rises tax evasion, corruption outside tax authorities (i.e., bribes paid to obtain operating licenses and secure government contracts) has adverse spillovers on tax evasion. The thesis concludes in Chapter 5 outlining key policy implications.