The study estimates that if the most corrupt countries adopted the standards of the least corrupt, they could treble GDP per head. It would be easy to dismiss the conclusion that corruption hinders growth as a platitude but this is an extraordinarily powerful result. The same holds for other seemingly obvious links such as the fact that a reduced burden of regulation is good for growth. There are less obvious findings too, like the economic pay-off from improvement in civil liberties. The evidence clearly overturns the once fashionable notion that authoritarian regimes might even be better for growth because they could get things done.
Good government is decisively more important than firm government.
There are clear and possibly controversial policy implications. These include a liberal political regime, a commitment to more equality for women and members of ethnic minorities, and a concern for the environment. This is not an easy message about policy priorities for a banker in a designer suit to deliver to a country where average incomes are just a few hundred dollars a year, life expectancy less than 50 years and as many as one in five children die in infancy. Find the report here . You will need Adobe Acrobat to view it.