We collected 299 frontal face images of 2017 cabinet ministers from 15 post‐Soviet states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan). For each image, the minister's body‐mass index is estimated using a computer vision algorithm. The median estimated body‐mass index of cabinet ministers is highly correlated with conventional measures of corruption (Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, World Bank worldwide governance indicator Control of Corruption, Index of Public Integrity). This result suggests that physical characteristics of politicians such as their body‐mass index can be used as proxy variables for political corruption when the latter are not available, for instance at a very local level.

中文翻译：

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后苏联国家的政客肥胖与腐败

我们收集了来自15个苏联后国家（亚美尼亚，阿塞拜疆，白俄罗斯，爱沙尼亚，格鲁吉亚，哈萨克斯坦，吉尔吉斯斯坦，拉脱维亚，立陶宛，摩尔多瓦，俄罗斯，塔吉克斯坦，土库曼斯坦，乌克兰和乌兹别克斯坦）的299位2017年内阁大臣的正面图像。对于每幅图像，将使用计算机视觉算法估算部长的身体质量指数。内阁部长的身体质量估计中值与常规的腐败衡量标准高度相关（透明国际腐败感知指数，世界银行全球治理指标《腐败控制》，《公共廉正指数》）。这一结果表明，政客的身体特征（例如他们的身体质量指数）可以用作政治腐败的代理变量，当后者不可用时（例如在非常局部的水平）。