2020年经济学人 行贿的代价(2)

That, however, does not take account of the chances of getting caught. These have risen as enforcement of America’s 43-year-old anti-bribery¹ law, the Foreign Corrupt² Practices Act (FCPA), has been stepped up and other countries have passed similar laws. The number of FCPA cases is up sharply since the financial crisis of 2007 to 09, according to Stanford Law School. It has dipped a bit under President Donald Trump³, who has criticised the FCPA for hobbling American firms overseas, but remains⁴ well above historic levels. Total fines for FCPA violations⁵ were $14bn in 2016 to 19, 48 times as much as in the four years to 2007.

然而，这并未考虑到被抓的可能性。美国的反贿赂法——《反海外腐败法》有43年的历史，该法案的执行力度不断加大，而且其他国家也通过了类似的法律，致使被抓捕的行贿案件也随之增多。斯坦福法学院的数据显示，自2007至09年金融危机以来，《反海外腐败法》的案件数量急剧上升。唐纳德·特朗普总统批评《反海外腐败法》阻碍了美国公司在海外的发展。在他的领导下，案件数量有所下降，但仍远高于历史水平。2016至2019年间，违反《反海外腐败法》的罚款总额为140亿美元，是截至2004年至2007年的的罚款总额的48倍。

The authors also tested 11 hypotheses that emerged from past studies of bribery. They found support for some, for instance that firms pay larger bribes⁶ when they expect to receive larger benefits, and that the net benefits of bribing⁷ are smaller in places with more public disclosure of politicians’ sources of income.

研究的发起人还考察了之前针对贿赂研究得出的11个假设。他们发现有一些假设可以支持得出的结论，比如说，当公司期望得到更大的利益时，他们会进行更大额的行贿，在更多公开披露政客收入来源的方面，行贿的净收益更小。

But they punctured⁸ other bits of received wisdom. Most striking, they found no link between democracy and graft⁹. This challenges the “Tullock paradox”, which holds that firms can get away with smaller bribes in democracies because politicians and officials have less of a lock on the system than those in autocratic countries, and so cannot extract as much rent. Such findings will doubtless be of interest to corruption¹⁰ investigators¹¹ and unscrupulous executives alike.

但是他们打破了其他的一些公知。最引人注目的是，他们发现民主和腐败之间并无关联。这对“图洛克悖论”提出了挑战，图洛克悖论认为，在民主国家，公司会因较小数额的行贿而逍遥法外，因为政客和官员对制度的约束不如专制国家，也就无法获得那么多的利益。这样的调查结果无疑会引起腐败调查人员和无良高管的兴趣。

1 bribery   

n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿

参考例句：

• FBI found out that the senator committed bribery.美国联邦调查局查明这个参议员有受贿行为。
• He was charged with bribery.他被指控受贿。

2 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

6 bribes   

n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• corrupt officials accepting bribes 接受贿赂的贪官污吏

7 bribing   

贿赂

参考例句：

• He tried to escape by bribing the guard. 他企图贿赂警卫而逃走。
• Always a new way of bribing unknown and maybe nonexistent forces. 总是用诸如此类的新方法来讨好那不知名的、甚或根本不存在的魔力。 来自英汉非文学 - 科幻

8 punctured   

v.在（某物）上穿孔( puncture的过去式和过去分词 )；刺穿（某物）；削弱（某人的傲气、信心等）；泄某人的气

参考例句：

• Some glass on the road punctured my new tyre. 路上的玻璃刺破了我的新轮胎。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A nail on the road punctured the tyre. 路上的钉子把车胎戳穿了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 graft   

n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接

参考例句：

• I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
• The minister became rich through graft.这位部长透过贪污受贿致富。

10 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

11 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》