Leader´s attitudes towards corruption - empirical evidence from Northern Mozambique

Abstract

We pretend to derive the effect of natural resources on leader’s attitudes and behaviors in deteriorated African economies. Through self-reported data from Northern Mozambique on leaders and households, we examine the effects on attitudes of corruption, appropriation of resources, trust and violence from the leader. We find that a resource discovery has a positive influence on leader’s proneness to corruption – paying bribes and ignoring the law –, especially, for the ones found during the leader’s tenure. The existence of resources also affects positively the leader’s idea of appropriation of rents, the trust in the community and the generosity in providing something to its community.