"Facilitation Payments"

Cynthia D. Churchwell interviews Harvard Business School professor Rafael Di Tella on the question of whether American businesses should be prepared to pay bribes in order to conduct commerce in other countries.

I appreciate professor Di Tella's candor in noting that in some countries, the choice comes down to paying the bribe or leaving the market. Although optional approaches are sometimes considered, such as making a donation to a local hospital, that may not always be possible.

Some of the literature on corruption distinguishes between nations in which officials take a percentage (as in "See that highway? When that was built, ten per cent of the building budget came to me.") and where they flat out pillage (as in "See that vacant field where a highway was supposed to be built? One hundred percent of the building budget came to me."). The latter instance requires a total boycott.