Corruption in Namibia: Examining the Nexus Between Survey-Identified Causes and Empirical Validation

Abstract

This study investigates the causal relationship between the factors identified in the 2016 National Corruption Perception Survey Report and corruption levels in Namibia. By analysing data from 2000 to 2022, the Toda-Yamamoto VAR Granger causality test was employed to investigate the impact of greed, poor leadership and law enforcement, poverty (working poverty), and poor pay (compensation to employees) on corruption levels. The results revealed statistically significant causal linkages between greed, poor leadership and law enforcement, and poverty. Poor pay, however, showed no significant causal influence on corruption. These findings highlight the necessity of tackling issues such as equal income distribution, poverty, and governance inadequacies in anti-corruption initiatives. Targeted measures based on empirical evidence can effectively reduce corruption and increase transparency in governance. Additionally, conducting more recent corruption surveys in Namibia could yield up-to-date perceptions that could be adopted in similar country-specific studies elsewhere.