This article states that pecepctions about corruption should be carefully taken into consideration, for they show little of the empirical phenomenon of corruption. The author puts into question researches available about the problem, emphasizing the lack of evidences concerning the relation between corruption in a country and the perpection of population. Even its impacts over economy remain obscure: as there are no empirical researches about the subject, one cannot state to which level international investors take these perceptions into consideration when deciding where to invest.
corruption; opinion research; Brazilian political crisis