News
Jul 06 2006
Study: U.N. Diplomats With Dim View of U.S. More Likely to Ignore Traffic Tickets
NEW YORK — Researchers who examined tens of thousands of parking tickets issued to United Nations diplomats found those least likely to pay up were from countries where people hold a dim view of the United States.
The study was conducted by economists from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, who were hoping to uncover why officials from some countries frequently abused their diplomatic immunity by parking illegally, while others played by the rules.
Their main finding was that diplomats were more likely to run up unpaid parking fines if they hailed from countries with a history of unchecked corruption, such as Nigeria.
But a second factor — poor U.S. image — emerged when the researchers matched the list of offenders against a 2002 world public opinion survey performed by the Pew Research Center.
"It's much easier to flout the law if you tell yourself that the government that is making these laws or enforcing these laws lacks legitimacy," said Raymond Fisman of Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.
Between November 1997 and the end of 2002, diplomats accumulated more than 150,000 unpaid parking tickets in New York, racking up $18 million in unpaid fines.
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