William English - What are the Distinctive Challenges Posed by Different Types of Corruption?

William English, Edmond J. Safra Lab Fellow, presented his research at the February 29th meeting of the Lab Seminar. English opened with a discussion of his first project, which aims to develop a conceptual framework for thinking about problems of corruption, and then went on to suggest some ways in which problems of corruption arise and how they might be resolved.  

Introducing his first project, English noted that when studying institutional corruption, the primary analytic structure should be systems. He described institutions as functioning to coordinate purposes, order a myriad of complex interactions, and simplify things so that we can profitably engage them. Our trust in those institutions enables us to act without fearing exploitation. He went on to address the issue of institutional corruption and “rents” (when benefits to an agent’s action or asset exceed its opportunity cost) and the problem of “directly unproductive rents”. He suggested that the solution (in theory) would be to take certain types of rents off the political bargaining table (e.g. tax loopholes/expenditures), and develop “impersonal” processes for accessing government resources. The rules would have to apply in the same manner to all people, and be enforced impersonally, impartially, and without bias. However, such changes would need to defeat the existing array of interest aligned against them. 

Some participants questioned why English chose to use productive vs. unproductive rents as a metric, rather than distributive justice. English replied that while the noneconomic ideological debates may be interesting, the issue of money is really the important thing. Targeting illegitimate rents is something that people across the political spectrum should be able to agree on, even if they disagree about deeper questions regarding distributive justice. 

English ended his presentation with a brief overview of two studies--one that aims to identify opportunities for institutional reform, and another which tests methods of encouraging/discouraging cheating.