Monday, October 02, 2006

Index of National Corruption: Unpaid diplomatic parking tickets


"Cultures of Corruption: Evidence From Diplomatic Parking Tickets," is a paper by Columbia's Ray Fisman and UC Berkeley's Edward Miguel that investigates the number of unpaid diplomatic parking tickets by country to formulate an index of each country's corruption. Diplomats don't pay parking fines, so the only reason for diplomats to follow the law is conscience and respect for the rule of law.

The worst offenders are the Kuwaitis, whose nine diplomats have racked up 246.2 violations each; then Egypt, with 139.6 violations for 24 diplomats. Canada, Israel, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have no violations at all.

Interestingly, the US embassy in London owes UKP 271,000 (just over half a million dollars) in fines for their ongoing refusal to pay the London congestion charge. The diplomats claim it's a tax, the London authorities say it's a charge for a service.

1 Comments:

Blogger Twosret said...

Absolutely shameful!

1:24 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home