Investigating the Consequences of Foreign Anti-Bribery Laws on Trade and Foreign Investment in Developing Countries

Corruption as a disease exists in all countries, especially in developing countries and the international community in recent decades, while is aware of the harmful effects of corruption, is seeking to prevent and reduce its effects within this convergence which is created as the global anti-corruption movement. The countries while considering the bribery as a crime, they enforced anti-bribery laws, which have both positive and negative consequences, sometimes reduce the motivation of economic actors to enter corrupt host countries and make trade and investment flows so weak to the extent that if the government officials of the host country receive bribes in the executive actions of their country while participating with corrupt persons, if they are not identified and prosecuted, it will not have a fruitful effect on their domestic legal systems. The question of the present article is what effects the anti-bribery laws have on the foreign trade and investment of developing countries. This research has been carried out on the basis of descriptive-analytical method and legal-economic approach, and its result results show that these laws, in addition to deterrence, sometimes create benefits for the beneficiaries of corruption. In other words by taking an alternative measures, they change the type of investment and corruption, which may intensify inefficient methods in developing countries. On the other hand, the enforcement of anti-bribery laws in the home country of a trader can strengthen the general perception of bribery in developing countries and influence the movement of communities in a destructive cycle of corruption.