{"id":15211,"date":"2022-11-29T12:51:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T11:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c-seb.de\/?page_id=15211"},"modified":"2025-07-23T18:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T16:49:10","slug":"wiso-advent-calendar-2022","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/c-seb.de\/en\/news\/wiso-advent-calendar-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"WiSo Advent Calendar 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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News<\/h1>\r\n

C-SEB in the WiSo Advent Calendar 2022<\/h1>\r\n\n <\/div>\r\n\n <\/div>\r\n
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C-SEB is committed to equal opportunity and promotes excellent research and research conditions. Our members work on exciting and socially relevant topics.<\/p>\r\n

In the WiSo Advent Calendar, we feature two research projects that focus on corruption across national borders and the costs of crime. Hidden in each post are italicized capital letters that make up the SOLUTION<\/font><\/i><\/b> for the first question in the WiSo Advent Calendar quiz.<\/p>\r\n

And if you count the number of Christmas trees (🎄) in the texts below correctly, you can also answer the second question in the WiSo Advent Calendar quiz. This can earn you a bonus prize!<\/p>\r\n\n <\/div>\r\n

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→ Go to German version\/Zur deutschsprachigen Version<\/a><\/i>
\r\n\"C-SEB<\/p>\r\n\n <\/div>\r\n\n <\/div>\r\n\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\r\n\r\n\n

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\n \r\n\r\n\"Bribery\"
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Corrupt?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n

Bribery and corruption know no borders – with high S<\/font><\/i>oCIE<\/font><\/i>tal costs. Who tries to bribe whom and to what extent across N<\/font><\/i>ational borders, and how sucCE<\/font><\/i>ssF<\/font><\/i>ul these attempts are, has much less to do with our own mOR<\/font><\/i>al standards than we might like.<\/b><\/p> \r\n
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Would you bribe 🎄 Santa? – Probably not. Neither would we. We\u2019d all like to think that’s because of our moral standards. But it\u2019s probably more because we consider bribery frowned upon where Santa comes from. <\/p> \r\n

The willingness to bribe and to accept bribes seems to be specific to each individual and stable over time. So, someone is either corrupt \u2013 or not. Recent research by C-SEB members 🎄 Angela Dorrough<\/a>, 🎄 Bernd Irlenbusch<\/a>, and 🎄 Andreas Gl\u00f6ckner<\/a> shows that one’s own (stable) moral standards play a surprisingly minor role in bribery across borders. Rather, bribery and corruptibility are variable \u2013 depending on who we are dealing with.<\/p>\r\n

🎄 In a large-scale online study, almost 6,500 people from 18 countries made 36 decisions each – 18 times as a \u201ccitizen\u201d with the option of bribing a public official from each of the 18 nations. And 18 times as a \u201cpublic official\u201d” with the option to accept bribes or not. As in real life, successful<\/i> bribery attempts had a material advantage for the two individuals involved \u2013 and disadvantages for the general public.<\/p> \r\n

The result is that 🎄 moral standards appear to be quite 🎄 flexible. If corruption seems to be widespread and acceptable in the other party’s country, more bribes are attempted and accepted – the fact that one comes from a country with a (perceived) low level of corruption is therefore relatively unimportant in interactions with foreign countries.<\/p>\r\n

What is critical here is our 🎄 expectation<\/i> and not the actual<\/i> corruption rate in another country: For example, in the USA, attempts at bribery are 🎄 accepted more often than expected and in Russia the acceptance rate is lower than expected. As in many other areas of life, we hold 🎄 stereotypical ideas about corruption that are often incorrect.<\/p> \r\n

Why is that important? – Not so much for our decision to trick 🎄 Santa Claus into giving us more presents in a questionable way. But for low death rates in natural disasters, biodiversity conservation, and efforts to combat climate catastrophe, low corruption rates across borders matter. This research shows that it matters surprisingly much what a country’s 🎄 reputation<\/i> is for corruption. This can be worked on.<\/p>\r\n

If you want to do something good for Christmas, you can donate to the organization that suffered disadvantages in the research work when bribery rates were high: https:\/\/www.atmosfair.de\/de\/<\/a><\/p>\r\n
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→ Contact: Angela Dorrough, angela.dorrough@uni-koeln.de<\/a><\/i>
\r\n→ Dorrough, A. R., K\u00f6bis, N., Irlenbusch, B., Shalvi, S., & Gl\u00f6ckner, A. (2022). Conditional Bribery: Insights from Incentivized Experiments Across 18 Nations<\/a>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(18), e2209731120.<\/i>\r\n
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\n \r\n\r\n\"Cost
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Costly Crime<\/h2>\r\n\r\n

Crime costs society a lot of money: courts, the police, and treatment F<\/font><\/i>or health damages eat up billions. And yet the social costs of crime are probably drastically U<\/font><\/i>nderestimated because T<\/font><\/i>hey neglect the individU<\/font><\/i>al costs on the part of the victims – foR E<\/font><\/i>xample, if they participate less productively in the labor market in the long term.<\/b><\/p>\r\n
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So much for \u201cSilent Night\u201d and \u201cSleep in Heavenly Peace\u201d \u2013 crimes don\u2019t take a break at 🎄 Christmas. There are indications that some crimes even increase on holidays such as 🎄 Christmas and New Year, for example cases of domestic violence. Which, in turn, affect women in particular. Research by 🎄 Anna Bindler<\/a>, an economist active in the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute<\/a> and in C-SEB, and her co-author 🎄 Nadine Ketel shows that it is precisely here that the individual victim costs are particularly high: The income of women who experience intimate partner violence is 14 percent (for assault) to 18 percent (for threats and threats of violence) lower one year later and does not reach previous levels for up to four years after the crime. It is quite possible that the effects last even longer.<\/p>\r\n

Overall, victims of crime earn on average about 13 percent less than before the assault and require up to 6 percent more social benefits. The fact that people in precarious employment and with low incomes are more likely than average to be victims of crime exacerbates the situation.<\/p> \r\n

The authors conclude that existing estimates of crime costs significantly underestimate them. 🎄 And considering that political decisions to invest in crime reduction \u2013 the most effective and sustainable victim support 🎄 \u2013 are influenced by these cost estimates, realistic figures are even more important.<\/p>\r\n

🎄 Prevention is also the best medicine when it comes to crime: Education, equal opportunities, and labor market prospects, but also (physical and mental) health care play an important role in crime prevention. Knowledge about who is particularly at risk of becoming a victim of crime can also be used for targeted<\/i> prevention measures. For example, 🎄 Anna Bindler is also involved in research<\/a> that shows that young people have an increased risk of becoming victims when they reach the age of 16 or 18 \u2013 that is, at the time when they are suddenly given more rights, for example with regard to drinking alcohol or going to bars.<\/p>\r\n

And that’s not all: By analyzing 🎄 historical data, 🎄🎄 Anna Bindler and Randi Hjalmarsson<\/a> show that the introduction of the London Metropolitan Police in 1829 🎄 \u2013 the first professional police force focused on deterrence \u2013 actually led to a reduction in crime.<\/p>\r\n

If things are not as peaceful at Christmas as we wish everyone from the bottom of our hearts, take advantage of the achievement of a professional police force and dial 110. Or turn to support centers for domestic violence<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n
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→ Contact: Anna Bindler, bindler@wiso.uni-koeln.de <\/a><\/i>
\r\n→ Bindler, A., & Ketel, N. (2022). Scaring or scarring? Labour market effects of criminal victimization<\/a>. Journal of Labor Economics, 40(4): 939-970.<\/i>\r\n
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