Glaeser E., Goldin C. (Ed.) Corruption and Reform. Lessons from America’s Economic History

A National Bureau of Economic Research Conference Report: USA: Chicago; The University of Chicago Press, 2006. — 386 p.Despite recent corporate scandals, the United States is among the world’s least corrupt nations. But in the nineteenth century, the degree of fraud and corruption in America approached that of today’s most corrupt developing nations, as municipal governments and robber barons alike found new ways to steal from taxpayers and swindle investors. In Corruption and Reform, contributors explore this shadowy period of United States history in search of better methods to fight corruption worldwide today.
Contributors to this volume address the measurement and consequences of fraud and corruption and the forces that ultimately led to their decline within the United States. They show that various approaches to reducing corruption have met with success, such as deregulation, particularly “free banking,” in the 1830s. In the 1930s, corruption was kept in check when new federal bureaucracies replaced local administrations in doling out relief. Another deterrent to corruption was the independent press, which kept a watchful eye over government and business. These and other facets of American history analyzed in this volume make it indispensable as background for anyone interested in corruption today.Corruption and Reform: Definitions and Historical Trends
Corruption and Reform: Definitions and Historical Trends
Corruption and Reform: Introduction
The Concept of Systematic Corruption in American History
Limiting the Reach of the Grabbing Hand: Graft and Growth in American Cities, 1880 to 1930
Digging the Dirt at Public Expense: Governance in the Building of the Erie Canal and Other Public Works
Consequences of Corruption
Corporate Governance and the Plight of Minority Shareholders in the United States before the Great Depression
Water, Water Everywhere: Municipal Finance and Water Supply in American Cities
The Road to Reform
The Rise of the Fourth Estate: How Newspapers Became Informative and Why It Mattered
Bank Chartering and Political Corruption in Antebellum New York: Free Banking as Reform
Regime Change and Corruption: A History of Public Utility Regulation
Reform and Regulation
The Irony of Reform: Did Large Employers Subvert Workplace Safety Reform, 1869 to 1930?
The Determinants of Progressive Era Reform: The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906
Politics, Relief, and Reform: Roosevelt's Efforts to Control Corruption and Political Manipulation during the New Deal