Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Corruption kills

On the anniversary of Haiti's devastating quake, Nicholas Ambraseys and Roger Bilham calculate that 83% of all deaths from building collapse in earthquakes over the past 30 years occurred in countries that are anomalously corrupt.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Earthquake deaths.
Figure 2: Cash and corruption.
Figure 3: Corruption's toll.

References

  1. Green, P. Br. J. Criminol. 45, 528–546 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Lewis, J. in Global Corruption Report 2005 23–30 (Transparency International, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Escaleras, M., Anbarci, N. & Register, C. A. Public Choice 132, 209–230 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Bilham, R. Bull. Earthq. Eng. 7, 839–887 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ambraseys, N. Transparency and earthquake losses Proc. Acad. Athens 85, Rep. 10.06.2010 (2010).

  6. Burton, I. & Kates, R. W. Nat. Resour. J. 3, 412–441 (1964).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Jackson, E. L. & Burton, I. in The Assessment and Mitigation of Earthquake Risk 241–260 (UNESCO, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Transparency International 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index (2010); available at http://go.nature.com/znxqt9

  9. World Bank, GNI per capita, Atlas method; available at http://go.nature.com/ucv9Ue

  10. Global Construction 2020: A Global Forecast for the Construction Industry over the Next Decade to 2020 (Global Construction Perspectives and Oxford Economics, 2010).

  11. Ambraseys, N. in The Assessment and Mitigation of Earthquake Risk 140–154 (UNESCO, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  12. Kaufmann, D. in The Political Economy of Corruption (ed. Jain, A. K.) Ch. 7 (Academic, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Allen, T. I., Marano, K. D., Earle, P. S. & Wald, D. J. Seism. Res. Lett. 80, 57–62 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Marano, K. D., Wald, D. J. & Allen, T. I. Nat. Hazards 52, 319–328 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Lomnitz, C. Bull. Seism. Soc. Am. 60, 1309–1313 (1970).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Materials, Supplementary Figures 1-11 with legends and additional references. (PDF 1598 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

This table shows earthquakes since 1980 for which the number of deaths directly attributable to building collapse have been estimated from original accounts. (PDF 251 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ambraseys, N., Bilham, R. Corruption kills. Nature 469, 153–155 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/469153a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/469153a

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene