Service Offshoring and Corruption: Do Firms Escape Corrupt Countries?

We analyze how service offshoring by Swedish firms is affected by corruption in source countries. The results suggest that firms avoid corrupt countries and that corruption reduces the volume of service offshoring. Analyzing firm heterogeneity, we find that large and internationalized firms are the ones that are the most sensitive to corruption. In addition, sensitivity to corruption tends to increase with falling income in source countries. These results suggest that the gains from reduced corruption may be the greatest for poor countries.