Climate change, corruption, and business bribes in South Asia

Firms in many South Asian countries are not only directly affected by natural disasters, but also indirectly affected by natural disaster-induced corruption of public officials. Public officials might have incentives to solicit bribes when natural disasters occur. This study explores the relationship between firms' perceived corruption and public officials' bribery behavior by analyzing firm-level data for five South Asian countries from the World Bank Enterprise Survey. The results showed that floods positively associated with corruption. Corruption was positively associated with bribery, and probability of soliciting bribery increased by 18% for each consecutive level of corruption perceived by the firm.