This study evaluates the relationship between corruption and environmental indicators, specifically tree density and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), in Mexico’s states. A Ridge Cross-Validation (RidgeCV) regression model was applied to mitigatemulticollinearity and correct endogeneity. The dataset includes economic and environmental data from 32 states in Mexico. Results show that tree density is negatively correlated with economic activity, while NDVI has a marginally positive impact. These findings suggest that deforestation may be driven by economic and governance factors, highlighting the role of environmental degradation as a corruption proxy. This work contributes to institutional economics by providing empirical evidence for sustainable public policy design and enhancing corruption measurement through environmental indicators.
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Ríos et al. (2025) studied this question.
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