Forbidden Payment: Foreign Bribery and American Business After 1977 / James R. Hines, Jr..

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hines, James R, Jr.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w5266.

NBER working paper series no. w5266

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Forbidden Payment

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1995.

Summary:

The United States prohibits American individuals and corporations from bribing foreign government officials. Legislation enacted in 1976 and 1977 stipulates tax penalties, fines, and even prison terms for executives of American companies that pay illegal bribes. This paper examines the effect of US anti-bribery legislation on the operations of US firms in bribe-prone countries after 1977. Four separate indicators reveal that US business activities in these countries fell sharply after passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. These results suggest that this unilateral action by the United States served to weaken the competitive positions of American firms without significantly reducing the importance of bribery to foreign business transactions.

Notes:

Print version record

September 1995.