# **Table A1: Variable Definitions, 1/5**

|**Variable name**|**Variable defnition and data source(s)**|
|---|---|
|**A. Additional control variables**||
|Familiarity|Log of 1 plus the number of declarations registered by a given broker and cleared<br>by a given inspector in the six preceding months. Defned at the inspector-broker-<br>semester level. Source: Madagascar customs.|
|Congestion|Log of the number of declarations assigned to the inspector in a given month.<br>Defned at the inspector-month level. Source: Madagascar customs.|
|**B. Auxiliary variables**||
|Internal reference prices (IRP)|Median of unit prices (ratio of value to quantity in kilograms) of a given HS 6-digit<br>product from a given country of origin computed across all import declarations<br>in Madagascar customs data in each year. Defned at the country-HS 6-digit<br>product-year level. Source: Madagascar customs.|
|Initial [fnal] average internal refer-<br>ence price|Weighted average of the IRP for all items included in the import declaration with<br>weights being the initially submitted weights by the importer or his representative<br>[fnal weights retained by customs] for each item. Defned at the declaration level.<br>Source: Madagascar customs.|
|External reference prices (ERP)|Unit price (ratio of value to quantity in kilograms) of a given product being<br>exported by a given trading partner to Madagascar. Defned at the country-HS<br>6-digit product-year level. Source: UN COMTRADE.|
|Initial [fnal] average external refer-<br>ence price|Weighted average of the ERP for all items included in the import declaration with<br>weights being the initially submitted weights by the importer or his representative<br>[fnal weight retained by customs] for each item. Defned at the declaration level.<br>Sources: Madagascar customs and UN COMTRADE.|
|**C. Broker characteristics**||
|Based in Toamasina|Dummy variable that takes value 1 if the broker’s headquarters are located in<br>Toamasina, and 0 otherwise. Defned at the broker level. Source: Madagascar<br>customs.|
|Average market share|Average share of declarations registered in Toamasina handled by the broker<br>across semesters. Defned at the broker level. Source: Madagascar customs.|
|Importer acting as own broker|Dummy variable that takes value 1 if the broker serves only one importer (itself),<br>and 0 otherwise. Defned at the broker level. Source: Madagascar customs.|
|Tenure _>_5-10 years|Dummy variable that takes value 1 if the broker was active in Toamasina at least<br>5 and fewer than 10 years, and 0 otherwise. Defned at the broker level. Source:<br>Madagascar customs.|
|Tenure 10 plus years|Dummy variable that takes value 1 if the broker was active in Toamasina for more<br>than 10 years, and 0 otherwise. Defned at the broker level. Source: Madagascar<br>customs.|
|**D. Corruption proxies**||
|Excess interaction share|Diference between the observed share of a given broker’s declarations handled by<br>an inspector in a given semester and the hypothetical share the inspector would<br>be expected to handle if the declarations were conditionally randomly assigned<br>(predicted using a multinomial distribution that should govern the assignment of<br>import declarations to inspectors if ofcial rules were adhered to as explained in<br>Section 4). Defned at the inspector-broker-semester level. Source: Madagascar<br>customs.|

56