The study focuses on behavioral differences across cultures in corruption experiments. To answer the question “What affects an individual’s propensity to engage in or punish corrupt actions?”, I have run corruption experiments with over 1000 students by comparing individual decision-making in Germany, the U.S. and Israel. The assumption is that in environments that are characterized by lower levels of corruption, there is both a lower propensity to engage in and a higher propensity to punish corrupt acts. In contrast to my assumptions, almost 70% of the Californian offered and accepted a bribe. In Germany almost 50% of the participants took the opportunity to offer and 40% accepted a bribe. The study shows that in the U.S. and Germany, the probability to bribe decreases if the participants have work experience and increases with the time the participants spent in other countries. Additionally, in Germany men have a higher propensity to bribe than women. In California males tend to give higher bribes compared to females. In the US, 52% of the citizens punished corrupt acts, in Germany even 80%. I also found a relationship between punishment and an individual’s field of study and between the amount of bribery and gender and the wish to work in private or public sector. Moreover, men punished corrupt acts with higher amounts than women. I explain the results by cultural differences (individualism) and different norms such as reciprocity. The results of the Israeli sample are currently being analyzed and will also be presented.
