“Cultures of Corruption: Evidence From Diplomatic Parking Tickets,” is a paper by Columbia’s Ray Fisman and UC Berkeley’s Edward Miguel that investigates the number of unpaid diplomatic parking tickets by country to formulate an index of each country’s corruption. Diplomats don’t pay parking fines, so the only reason for diplomats to follow the law is conscience and respect for the rule of law.

The worst offenders are the Kuwaitis, whose nine diplomats have racked up 246.2 violations each; then Egypt, with 139.6 violations for 24 diplomats. Canada, Israel, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark have no violations at all.

Boing Boing: Unpaid diplomatic parking tickets as index of national corruption
2006