The impact of corruption on migration flows. Evidence from Sub Saharan African countries

This paper investigates the effect of corruption on the migration flows from SSA countries to the OECD countries between 2000 and 2019. Fixed-effects and system GMM (generalized method of moments) estimation techniques are used to establish a relationship between emigration and corruption. The empirical results indicate that when corruption increases, migration flows also increase, where corruption is measured on a scale of 0 (not corrupt) to 100 (totally corrupt). Splitting the sample by income inequality suggests that increased inequality doesn't reduce the ability to emigrate. Indeed, below and above the threshold the results are the same. Finally, splitting the sample by corruption level suggests that a high level of corruption in the home country doesn't affect the migration decision.