Corruption Costs 0
The most corrupt states in the nation, according to Department of Justice prosecution data.
Facing South reports on the findings in The Impact of Public Officials’ Corruption on the Size and Allocation of U.S. State Spending by Cheol Liu of the City University of Hong Kong and John L. Mikesell of Indiana University at Bloomington. The “corruption rankings” were based on the number of public officials convicted of violating corruption laws.
A nugget:
The average “corruption gap” annually per capita? $1,308.
“This implies that the nine most corrupt states could have spent $1,308 less annually per capita, on average, if they had succeeded in maintaining only an average corruption level,” Liu and Mikesell write.
. . . Or the thirteen hundred bucks per capita could have been used fix potholes and schools, rather than to fix the game.
