Join USAID's Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Bureau for a presentation and interactive discussion with Professor Yuen Yuen Ang about unbundling the concept, causes, and consequences of corruption.
Professor Ang's research shows how different types of corruption harm countries in different ways. Her research unbundles corruption into four distinct types: grand theft, petty theft, speed money, and access money. Petty theft and grand theft directly and unambiguously hurt the economy by draining public and private wealth while delivering no benefits. Speed money relieves a headache but doesn't improve one's strength. Access money spurs growth but comes with serious side effects. Unbundling and decolonizing the measurement of corruption is necessary for reflecting upon and revitalizing democracies globally.
Professor Yuen Yuen Ang is the Alfred Chandler Chair of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University. She is the first named professor at the Center for Economy & Society and a faculty member at the SNF Agora Institute and Department of Political Science. Ang is a cross-disciplinary scholar of political economy, focusing on China and on the themes of development and innovation. She is named one of the world's "100 Most Influential Academics in Government" by Apolitical. Her two award-winning books, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016) and China's Gilded Age (2020), are both recommended by The Economist.
You can read more about unbundling corruption in her book chapter, this journal article, and this blog post. And you can hear her discuss her research on the Freakonomics podcast.