The business of bribery

(First of all how did the U.S. fare on this index?) Out of the 22 countries ranked, the U.S. is #9. (The top 3, the most honest, are Belgium, Canada and the Netherlands and the bottom 3 are Russia, China, and Mexico. So what did these bottom countries do to get to the bottom?) They’re quite likely to pay bribes to engage in daily business. But even with those top 3 countries, this doesn’t mean all their companies are corruption free. (Tell me about your methodology for this.) We wanted to put a finger on the supply side of corruption rather than the demand. We put the responsibility to those paying the bribes, which runs contrary to normal view of bribes. Usually blame is put on those taking the bribes. (So to clarify, when Russia is at the bottom of this list, it means Russian companies are offering more bribes than other countries?) It means they’re more likely to pay bribes. (Why is it important to rank corruption?) it puts peer pressure on countries but the message is also that even the top performers are not doing well and there’s always things to do.