Political corruption in Spain: analysis of contagion between municipalities

Abstract

[eng] This paper aims to shed light on the political corruption phenomenon occurred in Spain during its years of splendour, which lasted from the very end of the last decade of the XX’s century until the arrival of the Great Recession. By the implementation of a spatial econometric model that allows for the interdependence of corruption levels from different spatial units (i.e. municipalities), the fact that both space and what is called political alignment have a significant role in explaining the distribution of corruption throughout the territory is discussed. With such a purpose, I find arguments to believe that there is, in effect, a spatial correlation of corruption levels amongst observations, and also that the coexistence of governments led by right-wing political parties in local and its upper administration (e.g. municipality and its autonomous community) tend to increase the corruption probability, while left-wing ones cases contribute to reduce it.