A corruption formula from economics to help tennis and the Banana Republic issues of the USTA.

Below are a few lines from my recent presentation to a group of entrepreneurs and politicians in Central America. (I know some of you are thinking about what that has to do with tennis, keep reading and you will learn and find out, I promise to respect your time).

Corruption definition: The World Bank defines it as “the abuse of public trust for private benefit”. In several cases of corruption, the abuse of public power is not necessarily for one’s private benefit, but it can be for one’s party, Klan, class, tribe, friends, and family.

World-renowned professor on corruption of countries, and governments, Robert Klitgaard, has devised a formula for corruption that can be translated into the following terms:

Corruption = Monopoly + Discretion — Transparency

And that it is possible to think of it as a game of probabilities where the risk of being discovered in the act of corruption is evaluated against the personal benefit that could be obtained with the illegal act. For this reason, Klitgaard points out that corruption is a crime of calculation and not of passion. All this, we add, must be understood within the framework of a permissive culture, which in Banana Republics tends to manifest itself transversely in…