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An assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) using the Bayesian Corruption Indicator

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2021

Paul Fenton Villar Open the ORCID record for Paul Fenton Villar [Opens in a new window]
Paul Fenton Villar*
Affiliation:
School of International Development, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: P.Fenton-Villar@uea.ac.uk
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Abstract

Advocated across the international community for more than 15 years, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is now widely recognised as a hallmark anti-corruption scheme in the extractive sector. This study presents an assessment of the relationship between EITI membership and countries’ progress in tackling corruption. It provides the first study that looks at this issue using a ‘state-of-the-art’ indicator called the Bayesian Corruption Indicator. It also introduces an innovative estimation strategy combining entropy balancing with a difference-in-difference framework to address the baseline inequalities that exist between member and non-member countries. Contrary to the findings of many leading studies, this analysis finds corruption scores have improved significantly among EITI member countries. In particular, the evidence is strongest when we examine a sub-group of EITI members designated fully compliant with the initiative's transparency standards.

Keywords

corruptionEITIextractive industriesnatural resource managementtransparency

JEL classification

O13: Agriculture • Natural Resources • Energy • Environment • Other Primary Products Q32: Exhaustible Resources and Economic Development D73: Bureaucracy • Administrative Processes in Public Organizations • Corruption Q38: Government Policy
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 27 , Issue 5 , October 2022 , pp. 414 - 435
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

‡

The online version of this article has been updated since original publication. A notice detailing the changes has also been published at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X21000395

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