Exploring the Impact of Individual Characteristics Associated with Government Officials on the Severity of Real Estate Corruption

In China, corruption by government officials in the field of real estate has increased at an unprecedented pace, which poses a huge threat to social sustainability. To date, scholars have primarily focused on the macroscopic determinant factors of corruption such as state intervention and economic competition; however, much less is known about the microscopic determinant factor of corruption. In this study, we use an analytical model to evaluate how individual characteristics of government officials involved in corruption cases influence and predict the scale of corruption in these cases. Based on data collected from 135 cases, the results show that age is not a key factor that affects the severity of real estate corruption; however, characteristics associated with amounts of power and levels of involvement in corruption significantly affect the severity of real estate corruption. Therefore, we propose the following countermeasures: (1) take into account the micro determinants of real estate corruption, (2) focus supervision on officials in charge of departments, key position managers, and top leaders, (3) reform the governance of each phase of real estate development and governmental involvement, and (4) enhance auditing during officials’ tenures and limit the possibility of promoting officials who have participated in corruption.