Researchers have long theorized that characteristics of education systems impact both perceived and experienced corruption in public schools. However, due to insufficient cross-national survey data with measures on corruption in education and unassembled yet publicly available institutional data, there are few empirical tests of this theory. This article provides the rare direct test of the relationship between corruption in European public schools and three education system factors: government expenditure on education, education staff compensation, and teacher workload (pupil–teacher ratio). With a newly constructed harmonized data set for European countries, and controlling for national economic factors and individual characteristics, results of multilevel analyses suggest partial support for the theory that specific institutional characteristics of education systems impact public school corruption. The theorized institutional factors have different effects that depend on whether we examine bribe-giving experience or corruption perception. Results show that bribe-giving experience in public schools of Europe is weakly yet significantly related to education staff compensation. For corruption perception, low levels of government expenditure on education and a lopsided pupil–teacher ratio (too few teachers per student) increase the probability that people view corruption as prevalent.

中文翻译：

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欧洲公立学校的腐败：教育系统特征的跨国多层次分析

长期以来，研究人员一直认为，教育系统的特征会影响公立学校的感知和经历腐败。然而，由于有关教育腐败措施的跨国调查数据不足，以及尚未汇总但可公开获得的机构数据，因此对该理论的实证检验很少。本文提供了欧洲公立学校腐败与三个教育系统因素之间关系的罕见直接测试：政府教育支出、教育人员薪酬和教师工作量（师生比）。新构建的欧洲国家统一数据集，控制国民经济因素和个体特征，多层次分析的结果表明，教育系统的具体制度特征影响公立学校腐败的理论得到部分支持。理论化的制度因素有不同的影响，这取决于我们是否考察了贿赂经验或腐败认知。结果表明，欧洲公立学校的贿赂经历与教育人员薪酬的关系微弱但显着。对于腐败的看法，政府教育支出水平低和师生比例不平衡（每个学生的教师太少）增加了人们认为腐败盛行的可能性。结果表明，欧洲公立学校的贿赂经历与教育人员薪酬的关系微弱但显着。对于腐败的看法，政府教育支出水平低和师生比例不平衡（每个学生的教师太少）增加了人们认为腐败盛行的可能性。结果表明，欧洲公立学校的贿赂经历与教育人员薪酬的关系微弱但显着。对于腐败的看法，政府教育支出水平低和师生比例不平衡（每个学生的教师太少）增加了人们认为腐败盛行的可能性。