Integritas: Jurnal Antikorupsi
Vol 12 No 1 (2026): Article in Progress

Corruption, rule of law, and environmental damage: Evidence from 177 countries, including Indonesia

Muhammad Abduh (Universitas Tamansiswa)
Meita Istianda (Universitas Terbuka)
Aos Kuswandi (Universitas Islam 45)



Article Info

Publish Date
30 Jun 2026

Abstract

This study examines whether corruption is associated with environmental damage and if the rule of law conditions this relationship, with particular attention to Indonesia’s relevance for anti-corruption policy in resource-linked sectors. Environmental damage is measured by reversing the Environmental Performance Index (EPI 2024) score (100 − EPI), so that higher values indicate worse conditions. Governance indicators come from the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI 2021–2023). We estimate an interaction model in which corruption (coded so higher values indicate higher corruption) and law enforcement strength (rule of law) jointly explain environmental damage, with income included as a control variable. Results show a positive corruption–damage association in baseline models and a statistically significant interaction term, indicating that the association varies across enforcement regimes. Indonesia is benchmarked within the sample and falls in the upper tail of environmental damage, with corruption above the median and rule-of-law strength around the middle of the distribution. The findings suggest that environmental policy in Indonesia should be integrated with anti-corruption controls through licensing, inspection, sanctioning, transparency, and extractive-sector governance.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

integritas

Publisher

Subject

Law, Crime, Criminology & Criminal Justice

Description

Terbit sejak 2015, Jurnal Antikorupsi INTEGRITAS (p-ISSN: 2477-118X; e-ISSN: 2615-7977) merupakan jurnal yang menyebarluaskan hasil penelitian atau kajian konseptual tentang korupsi dan subyek yang berelasi dengan korupsi. Jurnal Antikorupsi INTEGRITAS terbit dua nomor dalam setahun ditujukan untuk ...