Perspectives on Gender and Corruption

Abstract

This paper looks at gender differences in the Quality of Government institute’s regional data on governance in Europe. With point of departure in three different research perspectives on gender and corruption this study examines the raw survey material, containing 85000 respondents from over 200 NUTS regions in the EU. The results show interesting gender differences with regard to corruption: Women, on average, perceive corruption levels as worse, report paying fewer bribes and have a lower tolerance for corrupt behavior, compared to men. These gender differences seem to exist in basically all countries in the study. In the second part of the study, established theories of gender and corruption are tested on the basis of the individual level findings in a multi-level model at the regional and national level in Europe, using the EQI index as the dependent variable. The results indicate that a larger share of female politicians locally elected might have positive effects on the regional quality of governance.