Adding a somewhat new dimension to the substantial body of research on factors driving cross-national corruption, this paper examines the effectiveness of dimensions of enforcement in reducing corruption. The main novelty lies in comparing the relative influences of latent enforcement (police, judicial, and prosecutorial employment) versus actual enforcement (conviction rates) and enforcing institutions. Results show that piecemeal enforcement efforts to combat corruption by increasing enforcement employment would not be effective, rather comprehensive improvements in institutional quality by strengthening the rule of law or regulatory quality bear greater results. These findings are robust across indices of corruption that capture somewhat different aspects. Thus, in terms of the title of the paper, when it comes to corruption control, strong gums (institutions) are more effective than showing teeth (enforcement employment) or the bite (conviction rates).

本文在对导致跨国腐败的因素进行大量研究的基础上，增加了一个新的维度，从而研究了执行维度在减少腐败方面的有效性。主要的新颖之处在于比较了潜在执法（警察，司法和检察人员的雇用）与实际执法（定罪率）和执法机构之间的相对影响。结果表明，通过增加执法人员的就业量来打击腐败的零星执法工作将不会有效，而通过加强法治或监管质量全面改善机构质量将产生更大的效果。这些发现在涵盖了一些不同方面的各种腐败指标上都是可靠的。因此，就论文标题而言，涉及腐败控制时，