Replication Data for Chapter 2: Corruption Experience and Foreign Investments

Host country corruption discourages multinational firms’ foreign investments. Nonetheless, multinationals may still want to invest to benefit from local business opportunities. To deal with the challenges of operating in a corrupt host country, they can use experience gained in other corrupt countries. I distinguish between “clean hands” and “dirty hands” learning about corruption – that is to say, learning how to avoid bribing, or learning how to pay bribes and avoid traceability. I disentangle these two competing mechanisms, which were confounded in previous studies, by assessing how home country enforcement of laws against bribery abroad modifies how prior experience in corrupt countries mitigates the discouraging effect of host country corruption on investment. I propose that, under clean hands learning, home country enforcement strengthens the mitigating influence whereas, under dirty hands learning, home country enforcement weakens this influence. Results from analyzing the location choices made by 25,067 multinationals from 97 countries for their 91,371 greenfield investments in 101 countries from 2008 to 2016 reveal that host country corruption discourages investment and that home country enforcement of laws against bribery abroad strengthens this discouragement. This is consistent with the view that dirty hands learning prevails over clean hands learning.