Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract Prior research has examined the effect of e‐government on corruption but has only considered perceived political corruption that differs from the actual corruption that citizens experience in their routine encounters with street‐level bureaucrats. This study focuses on petty corruption and delineates the underlying mechanism through which e‐government aids in curbing it. We argue that online service delivery reduces corruptibility on both sides—bureaucrats and citizens—by limiting the frequency of their interactions. To test this theoretical expectation, we vary the conditions under which petty corruption occurs. Using data from Latin America and the Caribbean, a region riddled with corruption, we demonstrate that e‐government significantly reduces bureaucratic corruption, but only for services where direct contact between citizens and street‐level bureaucrats can be avoided.
Kalesnikaite et al. (Tue,) studied this question.