Parking Tickets and Corruption, Take Two

Last year we blogged about the fascinating study written by economists Ray Fisman and Ted Miguel analyzing the patterns of parking violations among diplomats to the United Nations in New York. They find that diplomats from high corruption countries have more unpaid parking tickets, as do diplomats from countries that are more anti-American.

Armed with that information, try to guess which country’s diplomats are the worst offenders when it comes to dodging congestion charges in London. If you guessed “Nigeria,” you would be close; it has the second worst record for deadbeat diplomats. Still, Nigeria has less than half of the outstanding fines accrued by the No. 1 offender, whose ambassador has been so reluctant to pay for tickets that the Mayor of London has branded him a “venal little crook.”

You can find the answer, which might surprise you, in this report from Britain’s Channel 4 News.

(Hat tip: Colin Robinson.)