China’s Anti-Corruption Campaign and Civil Servant Fever

Abstract

How can anti-corruption efforts influence bureaucratic selection? This paper approaches this question empirically, leveraging variations from China’s recent high-profile anti-corruption campaign. Exploiting government departments’ staggered exposure to audits from the top leadership, our difference-in-difference estimate shows that applicants to a department were almost halved following the intensive enforcement. We provide evidence that the decline in popularity of bureaucratic jobs may result from both decreased corrupt returns and increased career uncertainty.