Fighting corruption or elections? The politics of anti-corruption policies in India: A subnational study

The paper investigates whether the timing of elections affects the incumbent government's efforts to control corruption. * Panel data on 30 Indian states during the 1988-2009 period is used to examine the question. * The findings show that scheduled elections (and not unscheduled elections) are associated with an increase in the number of corruption cases registered by the respective state's anti-corruption agencies. * On the other hand, there is no effect of scheduled elections on corruption cases being investigated by anti-corruption agencies. This paper extends political budget cycles theor... Mehr ...