The Determinants of Educational Corruption in Higher Education: The Case of Ukraine

Educational corruption is a relatively new area of study in economics due mainly to the lack of available data. This paper utilizes a unique data set to examine educational corruption of various types including bribing on exams and term papers as well as bribing to obtain credits and bribing to enter educational institutions. The data was gathered from 1588 students attending educational institutions throughout Ukraine. The paper attempts to identify the determinants of bribery across various institutions and cities throughout Ukraine. The results reinforce the importance of corruption perceptions and the relationship they have with actual bribing behavior. The paper concludes that women tend to have a higher probability of bribing on exams and for entrance after controlling for job market perceptions. The results also suggest that students whose fathers are in agriculture have a higher probability of bribing compared to students with fathers in the private or entrepreneurial sector. Bribing during secondary school is also a strong predictor of bribing on term papers and for entrance to tertiary school. Finally, a student’s opinion on the act of bribing stands out as a significant determinant of bribing on exams, for entrance, and for credit. Preliminary and Incomplete JEL codes: C35, D73, Z13 ∗The author would like to thank Lena Redko, Nicholas Shunda, Bryant Goulding, Christian Zimmermann, Gautam Tripathi, Susan Randolph, and Dhammika Dharmapala for their suggestions and comments, and to A Partnership for a Transparent Society for access to the data used in this paper.