Corruption Deterrence: Detection vs. Penalty

Economists model a public official's decision to accept a bribe as a rational expected-value calculation: the certain payoff of the bribe against the expected cost of punishment, itself the product of detection probability and penalty severity. This simulator runs that calculation across a live population of simulated bribe decisions. Two independent sliders — detection probability and penalty severity — each raise the expected cost on their own; a policy heatmap and a live scatter of individual decisions show how raising either lever alone can push the expected corruption rate toward zero, while leaving both low leaves a wide "rational corruption zone" where accepting the bribe is the rational choice.