2020年经济学人 行贿的代价(1)（在线收听）

Business

商业版块

Bribery

贿赂

A closer look at greasy palms

审视行贿

Bribery pays—if you don’t get caught

贿赂的代价——如果没被抓住

Many big companies may be struggling with depressed sales, but these are busy times for bribery-busters. Mexico is abuzz over allegations by an ex-boss of Pemex, the state oil giant, that several senior politicians received bungs from companies including Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction firm. The scandal is the latest in a string of graft cases to make headlines this year, starting with Airbus’s record $4bn settlement in January over accusations of corruption for making illegal payments in various countries.

许多大型公司可能都在与低迷的销售额艰难斗争，但现在正是行贿者忙碌的时间段。墨西哥时下流言四起，因为国有石油巨头墨西哥石油公司的前任老板提出的指控，他指控墨西哥的几位高级政要向几家公司收受贿赂，其中包括巴西建筑公司奥德布雷希特。在今年头条新闻报道的一系列腐败案件中，这则丑闻是最新的一起，今年最早的一例腐败案件报道是在1月份，空中客车公司被控在多个国家进行非法支付的腐败行为，被处以40亿美元罚款，罚款数额创下了纪录。

Corporate bribery is hardly new. In surveys, between a third and a half of companies typically claim to have lost business to rivals who won contracts by paying kickbacks. But such perceptions-based research has obvious limitations. A new study takes a more rigorous approach, and draws some striking conclusions.

单位行贿并非新鲜事。据调查，有三分之一到一半的公司通常会声称，竞争对手靠支付回扣赢得合同而抢走了生意。但这种基于感知的研究有明显的局限性。因此人们采取更加严格的方法开展了一项新的研究，而且结论惊人。

Raghavendra Rau of Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, Yan- Leung Cheung of the Education University of Hong Kong and Aris Stouraitis of Hong Kong Baptist University examined nearly 200 prominent bribery cases in 60 countries between 1975 and 2015. For the firms doing the bribing, they found, the shortterm gains were juicy: every dollar of bribe translated into a $6-9 increase in excess returns, relative to the overall stockmarket.

剑桥大学法官商学院的拉哈文德拉·拉乌、教育香港大学的闫荣翔和香港浸会大学的阿里斯·斯图亚蒂斯对1975年至2015年间60个国家的近200起重大贿赂案件进行了考察。他们发现，行贿的公司在短期内可获得丰厚的受益：相对于整个股市，每一美元的贿赂都会带来6-9美元的超额回报。