IF DEVELOPING countries join the global economy too soon, they risk becoming trapped in a cycle of poverty and corruption, a new analysis suggests.
A number of empirical studies have shown that poorer countries experience higher levels of corruption. Badly paid officials are easily tempted by bribes, the reasoning goes, while the well paid officials in richer nations risk losing their comfortable salaries if they are caught taking backhanders. But if corruption so bedevils developing nations, how do they escape and become rich?
Daniele Paserman, an economist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and his colleagues say they have…
