Government Size and Corruption in Turkey

Çavuşoğlu A. T., Teoman Ö.

PUBLIC FINANCE QUARTERLY, vol.52, no.6, pp.910-927, 2024 (ESCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 52 Issue: 6
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Doi Number: 10.1177/10911421241257596
  • Journal Name: PUBLIC FINANCE QUARTERLY
  • Journal Indexes: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, ABI/INFORM, Business Source Elite, Business Source Premier, EconLit, PAIS International, Political Science Complete, Public Administration Abstracts, Public Affairs Index, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.910-927
  • Hacettepe University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Corruption has been one of the challenging topics in public economics for years, prompting extensive discussions from various perspectives. In this study, we investigate the causal relationship between government size and corruption in Turkey, where the anticorruption performance has been getting worse over time until recently. By utilizing a long-span news-based corruption index spanning approximately three-quarters of a century, we conclude that government size serves as the long-term driving force behind corruption in Turkey from 1950 to 2019. This conclusion is robustly reached through a battery of dynamic time series analyses.