Page 1 of 11  The first part of what follows will provide a conceptual framework, based on the economic theory of incentives, which helps understand these various aspects of vigilance, how they interact with each other, and why preventive vigilance often takes centre stage in the government or public sector institutions as an essential tool of good governance.
Gary Becker’s “Crime and Punishment” The modern economic theory of corruption and how to prevent it emanates largely from Gary Becker’s insightful and seminal pieces on Crime and Punishment during 1968-1974. Gary Becker, a young economist at the University of Chicago, took the theory away from moral and ethical basis to one based on optimal human behaviour in response to the presented economic incentives.