Research

The Centre for the Study of Corruption undertakes rigorous academic research to address some of the world’s major corruption issues.

A lecturer giving a seminar in the Freeman building

CSC’s research activities are based around four themes:

  • Corruption in politics
  • Corruption in international business
  • Corruption in sport
  • Corruption in geographical context – with particular strengths in the UK, Germany & Eastern Europe, China and Africa.

Full details of the published and current research undertaken by our core faculty can be found in the detailed biographies of each faculty member. A summary can be found below.

Discussion Paper series

CSC publishes working papers to make research results, accounts of work-in-progress and background information available to those concerned with the study of corruption and anti-corruption. Recent titles include:

Current research and upcoming publications

Professor Liz David-Barrett (Director)

Curbing Corruption in Procurement: using innovative methodology for analysing big data to calculate indicators of corruption risk in aid-funded procurement, exploring how the type and structure of corruption risks is affected by various regulatory interventions employed as well as by the sociopolitical context

International Deal-Making, Beliefs and Social Norms: exploring the business-politics interface, including conflicts of interest in public office, lobbying and the revolving door, and the role of private-sector collective action in curbing corruption

Professor Dan Hough

Corruption Theories: how many corruption theories are there and what do they tell us?

Corruption definitions: definitions of corruption in the US context

Corruption narratives: narratives of corruption in the German parliament

Professor Robert Barrington

Corruption in Modern Britain: the UK’s response to corruption since 1990 and what more needs to be done

The Future of Corruption: anticipating how the nature of corruption will change over the coming years, and what we can learn from the history of the anti-corruption movement to anticipate changes rather than react too late

Dr Roxana Bratu

New Technologies and Corruption: the ways in which new technologies create opportunities for corruption, focusing particularly on targeted ads for political campaigns on social media 

Representations of Corruption in the Media: the uses of corruption by actors to frame their political discourse 

Social Construction of Integrity: an ethnographic project investigating the meanings, uses and social imaginary related to integrity used by tech giants for self-governing 

Liljana Cvetanoska

The Impact of Corruption on Women: based on elite interviews and documentary analysis in seven Central and Eastern European countries, assessing whether corruption negatively impacts women’s access to and promotion in politics, access to social services and human rights protection 

The Role of the EU in Corruption Control in its Member States and Candidates for Accession: the limits of the EU anti-corruption policies and the restraints that domestic factors impose on the effectiveness of EU’s anti-corruption conditionality; focus on corruption and the misuse of EU funds and the newly created European Public Prosecution Office

Dr Shahrzad Fouladvand

Human Trafficking, Corruption and Corporate Complicity: examining criminal justice aspects of corruption, and public sector complicity (whether direct or indirect) in relation to both internal and international human trafficking; also examining the extent to which co-operation is possible or desirable with criminal justice agencies tainted by corruption, whether outside the EU or within it, with a particular focus on Albania.

Dr Sam Power

Campaign Financing: campaign financing both online and offline and the role of money as a (potential) corrupting influence

Political Influence: the study of non-financial means of influencing politics, such as lobbying

Party Politics: including party membership, consultancy and new institutionalism

PhD students

Liljana Cvetanoska
Corruption in Central and Eastern Europe: The influence of the European Union on the control of corruption in the Czech Republic, Macedonia and Romania (funded by a Chancellor’s International Research Scholarship)

Riccardo D’Emidio
Social Norms and Petty Corruption: The Case of Ghana

Rebecca Dobson
The Politics of Climate Change Policymaking in the UK and its Implications for the Concept of Institutional Corruption

Mohamed Elier
Attempts to Combat Money Laundering by Sale of Oil in Libya: A Comparative Analysis with England and Wales

Elena Gorianova
Non-implementation Issues in Transitional Countries; Environmental Regulation of the Oil Industry in Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council)

Irasema Guzman
Corruption Risks in Public Procurement Contracts: monitoring delivery of goods, services and works projects in Mexico

Babatunde Ibidape-Obe
Conflict of Interest in Public Procurement in Nigeria: The Open Government Data Solution to the Problem of Transparency and Accountability

Uche Igwe
The Politics of Anti-Corruption in Nigeria

Tena Prelec
The Energy Transition Game: Development of Corruption and Informality through the Economic Transition in Successor Yugoslav States

Thomas Shipley
Comparing Nigerian States: anti-corruption and the subnational environment

Yves Gazihi Sibo
International Cooperation in Criminal Matters: A Case Study of the East African Community

Jamie Park
Comparing Conflict of Interest Regulation

Yang Wu
Fighting Against ‘Circles’— the current anti-corruption campaign in China and the cultural transition of the CPC

Recent and past research

Professor Liz David-Barrett (Director)

Dávid-Barrett, E & Fazekas, M (2019) Grand corruption and government change: an analysis of partisan favoritism in public procurement. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research. ISSN 0928-1371

Dávid-Barrett, E (2019) Business unusual: collective action against bribery in international business. Crime, Law and Social Change, 71 (2). pp. 151-170. ISSN 0925-4994

Dávid-Barrett, E, Yakis-Douglas, B, Moss-Cowan, A & Nguyen, Y (2017) A bitter pill? Institutional corruption and the challenge of antibribery compliance in the pharmaceutical sector. Journal of Management Inquiry, 26 (3). pp. 326-347. ISSN 1056-4926

Dávid-Barrett, E & Okamura, K (2016) Norm diffusion and reputation: the rise of the extractive industries transparency initiative. Governance, 29 (2). pp. 227-246. ISSN 0952-1895

Professor Dan Hough

Hough, D (2017) Analysing Corruption (New York; Columbia University Press)

Hough, D (2013) Corruption, Anti-Corruption and Governance (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).

Hough, D & Monyake, M (2019) Citizens, Bribery and the Propensity to Protest, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 57 (3), 2019: 282-302.

Hough, D & Heaston, W (2018) The Art of Missing the Point: FIFA and the Control of Corruption, in Ina Kubbe and Annika Engelbert (eds.), Corruption and Norms: Why Informal Rules Matter (London: Palgrave, 2018).

Hough, D & Ardigo, I (2017) Bishops that live like princes; Bishop Tebartz-van Elst and the challenge of defining corruption, Public Integrity, 20 (1), 2018: 64-79

Hough, D (2017) International Approaches to Tackling Corruption, Frontiers of Law in China, 12 (3), 2017: 339-354.

Professor Robert Barrington

Wilkinson, P, Krishnan, C & Barrington, R (eds) (2011) The 2010 UK Bribery Act Adequate Procedures – guidance on good practice procedures for corporate anti-bribery programmes, Transparency International, London

Krishnan, C & Barrington, R (2011), Corruption in the UK: Overview, Transparency International, London

Wilkinson, P & Barrington, R (ed) (2014) Countering Small Bribes, Transparency International, London

Barrington, R, Murray, D, Schenck, S & Unger, D (2013) Fair Play: strengthening integrity and transparency in cricket, Transparency International, Berlin

Dr Roxana Bratu

Bratu, R (2018) Corruption, informality and entrepreneurship in Romania. Political Corruption and Governance. Palgrave - Macmillan. ISBN 9783319666662

Bratu, R & Kažoka, I (2018) Metaphors of corruption in the news media coverage of seven European countries. European Journal of Communication, 33 (1). pp. 57-72. ISSN 0267-3231

Bratu, R, Sotiropoulos, D A & Stoyanova, M (2017) Through the lens of social constructionism: the development of innovative anti-corruption policies and practices in Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, 2000–2015. The Slavonic and East European Review, 95 (1). pp. 117-150. ISSN ‎0037-6795

Bratu, R (2016) Living on the edge: Ukraine’s ambiguous war on corruption. In: Kęsek, Rafal, Boroda, Maxim and Jóźwik, Ziemowit (eds.) Addressing security risks at the Ukrainian border through best practices on good governance. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series - E: Human and Societal Dynamics, 129. IoS Press: NATO Science for Peace and Security Series – E: Human and Societal Dynamics, Amsterdam, pp. 57-64. ISBN 9781614997092

Liljana Cvetanoska

Cvetanoska, L (2019) Corruption, democracy and (non-development): The role of the European Union (with Inn Kubbe). Handbook on Democracy and Development. Edward Elgar Publishing (forthcoming).

Cvetanoska, L (2019) Corruption and women’s access to politics in Kosovo. In: (Armakolas, I. et.al. eds). Building Knowledge About Kosovo. Prishtina: KFOS (forthcoming).

Dr Shahrzad Fouladvand

Fouladvand, Shahrzad (2019) Corruption and human trafficking: a holistic approach. In: Pasculli, Lorenzo and Ryder, Nicholas (eds.) Corruption in the global era: causes, sources and forms of manifestation. The Law of Financial Crime. Routledge, pp. 289-305

Fouladvand, Shahrzad (2019) Corruption, regulation and the law: the power not to prosecute under the UK Bribery Act 2010. In: Ryder, Nicholas and Pasculli, Lorenzo (eds.) Corruption, integrity and the law: global regulatory challenges. Routledge.

Dr Sam Power

Power, S (2020) Party Funding and Corruption (Routledge)

Power, S & Dommett, K (2019) The Political Economy  of Facebook Advertising, Political Quarterly 90 (2) April 2019

Power, S (2019) A political science perspective to the study of corruption: from debate to détente in Ellis, J (2019) Corruption, Social Sciences and the Law (Routledge, London)