Using a sample of 56 countries (28 rich and 28 poor), observed over the period 2004–2013, our paper develops an analysis of the contagion of corruption at the inter-institutional level. More precisely, it examines whether corruption in the justice system is an important factor to explain the expansion of corruption in politics. We find a clear unidirectional causal effect of corruption in the justice system on corruption in parliament. Low corrupt justice induces low corrupt politics. The results are robust to various checks. It appears that reducing corruption in justice alone causes a direct reduction of corruption in politics. Since fighting corruption is very costly, the result highlights the additional benefit of devoting greater resources to curbing judicial corruption.

使用 2004 年至 2013 年期间观察到的 56 个国家（28 个富国和 28 个穷国）的样本，我们的论文对跨机构层面的腐败蔓延进行了分析。更准确地说，它考察了司法系统中的腐败是否是解释政治腐败扩大的重要因素。我们发现司法系统中的腐败对议会中的腐败有明显的单向因果关系。低腐败的司法导致低腐败的政治。结果对各种检查都是稳健的。似乎仅减少司法腐败就可以直接减少政治腐败。由于打击腐败的成本非常高，因此结果凸显了投入更多资源来遏制司法腐败的额外好处。