Persistence of bribery in West African countries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically test persistence of bribery transactions in West African countries in spite of combative policy measures put in place by various governments in the sub-continent. Design/methodology/approach Data for this paper is obtained from the data set of Trace International’s Bribery Risk Matrix covering 2016 to 2018. The matrix is used to allow firms to determine risks associated with contact with government officials in a particular country. The data set is used to test this paper’s hypotheses. The generalize methods of moments (GMM) was used to estimate panel data of 16 West African Countries in STATA 14.0. Findings The result of the estimations reveals that in spite of combative policy measures put in place and millions of dollars spent, bribery is on the increase in West African countries. Originality/value Prior studies tend to focus on prevalence and pervasiveness of bribery transactions across the globe. This paper is one of the few that focuses on persistence of bribery particularly in West African countries.