Corruption and assortative matching of partners in international trade

Although the effects of corruption on bilateral trade are well-documented, its impact composition trading partners remains unexplored. In this paper, we argue that in a country imposes asymmetric costs depending their characteristics. Consequently, as level changes, flows from some change more than others, characteristics, changing partners. We focus two characteristics partners: (1) and (2) membership Organization for Economic Cooperation Development Convention Combating Bribery Foreign Public Officials International Business Transactions (OECD Convention). Using gravity model, find evidence negative assortative matching international with respect to corruption. is negatively associated high-corrupt countries positively volume signatories OECD convention. Our results suggest future studies topic should consider controlling institutional dissimilarities between it has implications costs.