Corruption Multiplies Chinese Officials’ Salary // ZEW Study Is the First to Quantify Illicit Additional Income

ZEW Study Is the First to Quantify Illicit Additional Income

Unlautere hochrangige Beamte in China nehmen durchschnittlich die acht bis vierzehnfache Summe ihres regulären Gehalts durch Korruption ein, zeigt eine ZEW-Studie.

High-ranking corrupt officials in China earn on average eight to fourteen times their regular salary by profiting from corruption. Corruption is especially widespread among officials with already high incomes and has a massive impact on earnings. While only seven per cent of officials proven to be corrupt would normally belong to the top one per cent of earners in urban China, the figure would rise to 91 per cent when considering illegal income. However, the far-reaching measures already taken by China with 3.7 million sanctions systematically inhibit corruption. These are the findings of a study conducted by ZEW Mannheim with the City University of New York. The study is the first of its kind to analyse the financial benefits of corruption for the individual perpetrators, drawing on data from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party.

Corruption is a vehicle used by China's upper income classes to dramatically increase their income. "According to our calculations, they are able to illegally increase their income by a factor of eight to fourteen. Corruption allows them to rise to the very top of the income distribution," explains Li Yang, PhD, co-author of the study and researcher in the ZEW Research Group "Inequality and Public Policy".