the dollars lost to global corruption roughly match the annual budget of the federal government , so obviously some people the corruptors are making a ton of money , right? . well, no. bribery costs even the bribers. three surveys of 2400 businesses in fifty-eight nations found that "firms that pay more bribes are also likely to spend more, not less , management time with bureaucrats negotiating regulations, and face higher, not lower, costs of capital. the more that firms pay in bribes to corruption officials, the lower their annual growth rates.
when countries reduce corruption, good things happen: poverty and child mortality rates decrease, and per capita income and literacy rates increase, among other benefits.