Enforcing Anti-Corruption Laws on Traffic Law Violators

This project has been canceled. In the aggregate, even small routine bribes can be very harmful. Petty bribes reduce the expected cost of punishment faced by individuals, diluting the deterrence effect of laws, while also providing a gateway to more serious police corruption. The goal of this study is to determine the impact of enforcing existing laws on incidence and amounts of bribes, compliance with laws, and citizen satisfaction in Hyderabad, India. This pilot project will explore mechanisms to enforce rules against offering bribes to police. For example, by adding new police home guards, specially trained in filing corruption abetment cases and equipped with relevant technology. The study will then test how this intervention changes the amount of fines collected, bribes offered, traffic violations committed, and citizens’ perceptions of the police.