Ms Van Rijckeghem and Ms Weder estimate that government wages need to be between 2.8 and 7.4 times the wages paid in manufacturing, depending on the other factors in each country, before corruption would become negligible.

ECONOMIST: Reasons to be venal | The

The relationship is strong enough, Ms Van Rijckeghem and Ms Weder reckon, to suggest that raising average civil-service pay from 100% to 200% of the manufacturing wage reduces corruption by about one unit in the corruption index.

ECONOMIST: Reasons to be venal | The