Governance corruption & economic performance This volume presents 18 recent IMF research studies on the causes and consequences of corruption as well as how it can most effectively be combated to improve governance increase economic growth and reduce poverty. The authors examine how civil service wages affect corruption the impact of natural resource availability on corruption how corruption retards the growth of small and medium sized enterprises the impact of corruption on a country’s income distribution and incidence of poverty the effect of corruption on government expenditures on health and education and the importance of structural reforms in combating corruption