Title: How Extortion Works: Evidence from an Emerging Economy
Abstract: Extortion is one of the ways that the formal economy leaks. Like bribery, extortion is not adequately documented because its perpetrators are unlikely to agree to record it. Like bribery, it adds to the cost of business. It is similar to facilitating payments in that neither seeks something to which the payer is not entitled and so they may seem less harmful than outright bribery (Argandoña, 2005). Both are however harmful and lead to worse forms of corruption, (Argandoña, 2005). This paper contributes knowledge of how extortion is practiced in Nigeria and proposes a model of the stages that characterize every incident. The paper examines a hundred and fifty-nine (159) victim narratives of experiences of extortion taken from fifty-five postgraduate Nigerian students. Considering the toughness of the Nigerian economic landscape and ethical environment (Tsalikis and Nwachukwu, 1991) where businesses struggle to survive profitably, a discussion of how money leaks from the economy and corruption is perpetuated is relevant. It is hoped that increasing the understanding of how extortion takes place will make it easier to recommend mechanisms to reduce its occurrence. A theoretical model (an extortion cycle) is proposed regarding the incidence and spread of corruption through a self-perpetuating cycle.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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