University students who cheat on a simple task in a laboratory setting are more likely to state a preference for entering public service. Also, cheating on this task is predictive of corrupt behaviour by real government workers, implying that this measure captures a meaningful propensity towards corruption. So say Rema Hanna and Shing-Yi Wang, researchers whose paper on ‘Dishonesty and Selection into Public Service’ is published as a Working Paper by the US National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).
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A screening process that chooses the highest ability applicants would not alter the average propensity for corruption among the applicant pool, according to the research.
