Giorgio Del Frè

Country Risk and Corruption: Crosscase Analysis of Poland and the Czech Republic Giorgio Del Frè

This book focuses on how the risk rating of a country may help to assess its corruption level. I?ve investigated and compared country risk and corruption levels in two dynamic European transitional countries, namely Poland and the Czech Republic. A data analysis shows which country risk indicator better tracks the overall corruption level in the ECA region: the best agency out of five ( Fitch, Moody?s, S&P?s, EIU, ICRG) predicting better corruption within its country risk index ,in the period 2002-2005, results to be Fitch. I?ve found that country risk, as measured by risk ratings, deteriorates as corruption increases. It follows from my estimates that an increase in country risk rating by a full rating category (i.e from BBB to A) has led to a raise of the overall corruption index by 2,574 unit which can be considered quite an high amount as the corruption scores of most central European transitional countries show a slighter difference among them.