3. How the results of the BPI 2006 compare with those of the CPI 2005

The BPI and the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) seek to measure different aspects of corruption and therefore have different methodologies. The CPI ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians in those countries, while the BPI ranks countries in terms of the propensity of their companies to bribe abroad. It is interesting to compare the results of the two indices, thereby comparing the performance of companies doing business abroad with the perceived state of corruption at home. There is a high correlation (0.87) between the results of the two indices (see figure 7, below).

Particularly interesting is the performance of Mexico. The BPI 2006 suggests that Mexican companies operating abroad are less likely to bribe than the high perceived level of corruption in Mexico would suggest. One possible reason may be its high dependence on the United States as a trading partner. It may be that Mexican companies are used to operating in a relatively strong institutional climate, which provides a strong deterrent to corrupt behaviour.

In contrast, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan performed substantially worse in the BPI 2006 than in the CPI 2005. This can lead one to conclude that companies from these countries are more likely to bribe when they operate overseas than would be accepted back home. This apparent tendency for companies to let standards slip when working in countries with less stringent regulations than their home countries is alarming, and underlines the need for governments to take responsibility for the way their companies do business abroad as well as at home.