This article studies how public investment and other types of spending by municipal governments shape perceptions of corruption in Mexico. We argue, drawing on various strands of literature, that investment in visible public works projects should lower corruption perceptions, given the well-known difficulties in directly observing corrupt acts. Contrary to our expectations and common assumptions in studies of public investment, we find that more public investment by municipal governments is associated, on average, with higher corruption perceptions. However, this effect is mediated by individuals’ education levels. For individuals with less formal education, higher public investment correlates with higher perceived corruption, while highly educated individuals perceive less corruption when municipal public investment is high. The study uses qualitative evidence from municipal audit reports to identify a possible mechanism driving this outcome: municipal investments may not be targeted to the poorer neighborhoods with greater public service deficits.

本文研究了市政府的公共投资和其他类型的支出如何影响墨西哥对腐败的看法。鉴于直接观察腐败行为的众所周知的困难，我们借鉴各种文献认为，对可见公共工程项目的投资应该降低腐败认知。与我们在公共投资研究中的预期和普遍假设相反，我们发现，平均而言，市政府更多的公共投资与更高的腐败认知相关。然而，这种影响是由个人的教育水平介导的。对于受教育程度较低的个人，较高的公共投资与较高的腐败感知相关，而当市政公共投资较高时，受过高等教育的个人感知较少的腐败。