This Research Report is submitted in partial fulfillment towards the degree of Master of Arts (MA) in International Relations in University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. June 2018 / This research investigates the nature of the correlation between the level of corruption and economic growth across 211 countries over the period from 1996 to 2006. With this intention, initially it reviews the conventional argument on corruption being regarded as an inhibitor of economic growth. This research also aims to investigate whether there are countries which exhibit good economic growth despite the presence of high levels of corruption. If so, are there other factors which may explain the presence of economic growth in these outlier countries? The findings clearly highlight that there are countries that exhibit good economic growth despite the presence of high levels of corruption. The findings also revealed that there are other factors that may contribute to economic growth despite the presence of high levels of corruption in these outlier countries. These other factors include trade openness, foreign direct investment and government spending. Thus, it appears that corruption is not always necessarily a factor that reduces economic growth in all contexts / MT 2019