Does grease money from police roadblocks speed up the wheels of the commuter omnibus? The case of kombis into and out of Harare

Abstract

The study employed cross section econometric and tested the “grease the wheels” hypothesis at a micro level. To achieve its objective, the study employed survey data from 188 kombi drivers and/or conductors (i.e., kombi crew) which was collected in the two months of January and February 2015. Estimated results show that three out of the six variables used in the model were statistically significant at 1% level of significance. The findings of the study indicate that profits pocketed by kombi crew (lnprofits) are an important factor in determining the daily takings (profitability) of kombis. This result makes economic sense given that kombi crew are motivated to remain on the road when the extra profits they collect (over and above their wages/salaries) are higher. A positive and significant relationship between kombi fare (lnfaire) and daily takings of kombis was also found by this study. In this instance, as the fare charged per given trip increases, ceteris paribus, the total daily takings per given route will also increase. This has an overall positive effect on the viability of kombi operations. Lastly, the study found that the more the number of round trips completed per day, the more the daily takings for a given route. The three variables which have been found to be statistically insignificant are the number of roadblocks (lnrblocks), bribe paid (lnbribes) and number of roadblock stops (lnstops) in a given route. Although the number of roadblocks variable, lnrblocks, has an unexpected sign, the other two variables have their respective expected signs. Whilst paying bribes ensured reduced stoppages at roadblocks along a given route, resulting in more daily takings, the variable is however not statistically significant. The number of police roadblock stops along a given route had a negative effect on daily takings, although the variable was not statistically significant.