The Demand for Corruption: A Case of Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines the demand for corruption in Nigeria between 1991 and 2018. While there exist a vast
number of literatures on the impact of corruption on several socioeconomic indicators, this study adds to the scanty
existing literature on the demand for corruption from the Nigerian perspective. Applying the Autoregressive Distributed
Lag Model (ARDL) estimation technique, findings show that both in the shortrun and long run, there exist a positive
relationship between income levels, income inequality, unemployment rate and the demand for corruption in Nigeria.
Also a negative relationship between poverty and the demand for corruption was found to exist both in the short and
long run. Notably, income levels were found to significantly influence the demand for corruption in Nigeria both in the
short and long run. The implication of the finding suggests that since higher income levels imply higher demand for
corruption in Nigeria, government can reduce the demand for corruption by reducing income inequality through wealth
redistribution measures.