Bribery incidence (% of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request) - Country Ranking

Definition: Bribery incidence is the percentage of firms experiencing at least one bribe payment request across 6 public transactions dealing with utilities access, permits, licenses, and taxes.

Source: World Bank, Enterprise Surveys (http://www.enterprisesurveys.org/).

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 Syrian Arab Republic 69.60 2009
2 Cambodia 64.70 2016
3 Yemen 64.30 2013
4 Dem. Rep. Congo 56.50 2013
5 Liberia 56.10 2017
6 Angola 51.30 2010
7 Bangladesh 47.70 2013
8 Afghanistan 46.80 2014
9 Sierra Leone 46.10 2017
10 Timor-Leste 44.20 2015
11 Solomon Islands 43.80 2015
12 Lao PDR 40.30 2018
13 Congo 37.50 2009
14 Ukraine 37.40 2019
15 Iraq 37.30 2011
16 Albania 36.10 2019
17 Mali 33.70 2016
18 Madagascar 32.90 2013
19 Kyrgyz Republic 31.40 2019
20 Pakistan 30.80 2013
21 Indonesia 30.60 2015
22 Samoa 30.50 2009
23 Burundi 30.30 2014
24 Myanmar 29.30 2016
25 Mauritania 28.90 2014
25 Nigeria 28.90 2014
27 Malaysia 28.20 2015
28 Guinea-Bissau 27.60 2006
29 Chad 27.40 2018
30 Russia 26.80 2019
30 Ethiopia 26.80 2015
32 Cameroon 26.70 2016
33 Papua New Guinea 26.40 2015
34 Vietnam 26.10 2015
35 Côte d'Ivoire 25.30 2016
36 Tonga 24.90 2009
37 Mongolia 24.70 2019
38 Malawi 24.20 2014
39 Kenya 23.90 2018
40 Gabon 23.20 2009
41 India 22.70 2014
42 Uganda 22.00 2013
43 Lebanon 21.80 2019
44 Montenegro 21.40 2019
45 Mozambique 21.10 2018
46 The Bahamas 21.00 2010
46 Central African Republic 21.00 2011
48 Tanzania 20.80 2013
49 Jamaica 19.30 2010
50 Algeria 18.80 2007
51 Ghana 18.70 2013
52 Sudan 17.60 2014
52 Peru 17.60 2017
52 Mexico 17.60 2010
55 Zimbabwe 17.50 2016
56 Philippines 17.20 2015
57 Morocco 16.90 2019
58 Bosnia and Herzegovina 16.00 2019
59 Guyana 14.90 2010
60 Lesotho 14.60 2016
61 Benin 14.50 2016
62 Nepal 14.40 2013
63 Paraguay 13.80 2017
64 Suriname 12.70 2018
65 Dominican Republic 12.30 2016
66 Azerbaijan 12.10 2019
67 Tunisia 11.90 2020
67 Vanuatu 11.90 2009
67 Moldova 11.90 2019
70 Italy 11.80 2019
71 Brazil 11.70 2009
72 China 11.60 2012
72 Kazakhstan 11.60 2019
72 St. Lucia 11.60 2010
75 Senegal 11.10 2014
75 Djibouti 11.10 2013
75 Tajikistan 11.10 2019
78 Trinidad and Tobago 10.50 2010
78 Fiji 10.50 2009
80 Venezuela 10.30 2010
81 Croatia 10.10 2019
82 Bulgaria 10.00 2019
82 Sri Lanka 10.00 2011
84 Thailand 9.90 2016
85 Burkina Faso 9.80 2009
86 Zambia 9.60 2019
87 Argentina 9.30 2017
88 The Gambia 9.20 2018
89 Namibia 9.10 2014
89 Bolivia 9.10 2017
91 Honduras 8.70 2016
91 Costa Rica 8.70 2010
93 Botswana 8.40 2010
94 Guinea 7.90 2016
95 Niger 7.80 2017
96 North Macedonia 7.40 2019
97 Panama 7.10 2010
98 Togo 7.00 2016
99 Serbia 6.90 2019
99 Antigua and Barbuda 6.90 2010
101 Eswatini 6.70 2016
102 Grenada 6.60 2010
102 Colombia 6.60 2017
104 Nicaragua 6.50 2016
105 Belize 6.20 2010
106 Ecuador 5.90 2017
106 Uzbekistan 5.90 2019
108 Dominica 5.80 2010
109 Greece 5.50 2018
110 Romania 5.40 2019
111 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 4.90 2010
111 Egypt 4.90 2020
111 Belarus 4.90 2018
114 Hungary 4.70 2019
115 Belgium 4.30 2020
116 El Salvador 4.20 2016
117 Rwanda 4.10 2019
118 Mauritius 3.90 2009
119 Czech Republic 3.50 2019
120 Denmark 3.40 2020
121 Guatemala 2.80 2017
121 Finland 2.80 2020
121 Poland 2.80 2019
124 Jordan 2.50 2019
125 Malta 2.40 2019
125 Slovak Republic 2.40 2019
125 Uruguay 2.40 2017
128 St. Kitts and Nevis 2.20 2010
129 Latvia 2.00 2019
129 Cabo Verde 2.00 2009
131 Slovenia 1.80 2019
132 South Africa 1.50 2020
133 Armenia 1.40 2020
133 Turkey 1.40 2019
135 Georgia 1.30 2019
135 Chile 1.30 2010
137 Barbados 1.20 2010
138 Bhutan 0.90 2015
139 Ireland 0.40 2020
140 Portugal 0.30 2019
140 Netherlands 0.30 2020
142 Cyprus 0.20 2019
142 Lithuania 0.20 2019
144 Israel 0.10 2013
145 Luxembourg 0.00 2020
145 Sweden 0.00 2020
145 Eritrea 0.00 2009
145 Estonia 0.00 2019

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Development Relevance: Firms evaluating investment options, governments interested in improving business conditions, and economists seeking to explain economic performance have all grappled with defining and measuring the business environment. The firm-level data from Enterprise Surveys provide a useful tool for benchmarking economies across a large number of indicators measured at the firm level. Corruption by public officials may present a major administrative and financial burden on firms. Corruption creates an unfavorable business environment by undermining the operational efficiency of firms and raising the costs and risks associated with doing business. In some countries doing business requires informal payments to "get things done" in customs, taxes, licenses, regulations, services, and the like. Such corruption can harm the business environment by distorting policymaking, undermining government credibility, and diverting public resources.

Limitations and Exceptions: The sampling methodology for Enterprise Surveys is stratified random sampling. In a simple random sample, all members of the population have the same probability of being selected and no weighting of the observations is necessary. In a stratified random sample, all population units are grouped within homogeneous groups and simple random samples are selected within each group. This method allows computing estimates for each of the strata with a specified level of precision while population estimates can also be estimated by properly weighting individual observations. The sampling weights take care of the varying probabilities of selection across different strata. Under certain conditions, estimates' precision under stratified random sampling will be higher than under simple random sampling (lower standard errors may result from the estimation procedure). The strata for Enterprise Surveys are firm size, business sector, and geographic region within a country. Firm size levels are 5-19 (small), 20-99 (medium), and 100+ employees (large-sized firms). Since in most economies, the majority of firms are small and medium-sized, Enterprise Surveys oversample large firms since larger firms tend to be engines of job creation. Sector breakdown is usually manufacturing, retail, and other services. For larger economies, specific manufacturing sub-sectors are selected as additional strata on the basis of employment, value-added, and total number of establishments figures. Geographic regions within a country are selected based on which cities/regions collectively contain the majority of economic activity. Ideally the survey sample frame is derived from the universe of eligible firms obtained from the country’s statistical office. Sometimes the master list of firms is obtained from other government agencies such as tax or business licensing authorities. In some cases, the list of firms is obtained from business associations or marketing databases. In a few cases, the sample frame is created via block enumeration, where the World Bank “manually” constructs a list of eligible firms after 1) partitioning a country’s cities of major economic activity into clusters and blocks, 2) randomly selecting a subset of blocks which will then be enumerated. In surveys conducted since 2005-06, survey documentation which explains the source of the sample frame and any special circumstances encountered during survey fieldwork are included with the collected datasets. Obtaining panel data, i.e. interviews with the same firms across multiple years, is a priority in current Enterprise Surveys. When conducting a new Enterprise Survey in a country where data was previously collected, maximal effort is expended to re-interview as many firms (from the prior survey) as possible. For these panel firms, sampling weights can be adjusted to take into account the resulting altered probabilities of inclusion in the sample frame.

Original Source Notes: All surveys were administered using the Enterprise Surveys methodology as outlined in the Methodology page which can be found from www.enterprisesurveys.org.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Firm-level surveys have been conducted since the 1990's by different units within the World Bank. Since 2005-06, most data collection efforts have been centralized within the Enterprise Analysis Unit. Surveys implemented by the Enterprise Analysis Unit follow the Global Methodology. Private contractors conduct the Enterprise Surveys on behalf of the World Bank. Due to sensitive survey questions addressing business-government relations and bribery-related topics, private contractors, rather than any government agency or an organization/institution associated with government, are hired by the World Bank to collect the data. Confidentiality of the survey respondents and the sensitive information they provide is necessary to ensure the greatest degree of survey participation, integrity and confidence in the quality of the data. Surveys are usually carried out in cooperation with business organizations and government agencies promoting job creation and economic growth, but confidentiality is never compromised. The Enterprise Survey is answered by business owners and top managers. Sometimes the survey respondent calls company accountants and human resource managers into the interview to answer questions in the sales and labor sections of the survey. Typically 1200-1800 interviews are conducted in larger economies, 360 interviews are conducted in medium-sized economies, and for smaller economies, 150 interviews take place. The manufacturing and services sectors are the primary business sectors of interest. This corresponds to firms classified with ISIC codes 15-37, 45, 50-52, 55, 60-64, and 72 (ISIC Rev.3.1). Formal (registered) companies with 5 or more employees are targeted for interview. Services firms include construction, retail, wholesale, hotels, restaurants, transport, storage, communications, and IT. Firms with 100% government/state ownership are not eligible to participate in an Enterprise Survey. Occasionally, for a few surveyed countries, other sectors are included in the companies surveyed such as education or health-related businesses. In each country, businesses in the cities/regions of major economic activity are interviewed. In some countries, other surveys, which depart from the usual Enterprise Survey methodology, are conducted. Examples include 1) Informal Surveys- surveys of informal (unregistered) enterprises, 2) Micro Surveys- surveys fielded to registered firms with less than five employees, and 3) Financial Crisis Assessment Surveys- short surveys administered by telephone to assess the effects of the global financial crisis of 2008-09. The Enterprise Surveys Unit uses two instruments: the Manufacturing Questionnaire and the Services Questionnaire. Although many questions overlap, some are only applicable to one type of business. For example, retail firms are not asked about production and nonproduction workers. The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance. The mode of data collection is face-to-face interviews.

Aggregation method: Unweighted average

Periodicity: Annual