Diplomats from countries with high levels of corruption, and those from countries that have a poor opinion of the US, are far more likely to commit parking violations in New York, according to a new study from Columbia and Berkeley Universities.

Ray Fisman and Edward Miguel, the study's authors, focused on the United Nations headquarters' host city. The aim was to remove the factor of legal enforcement - which UN diplomats did not face before November 2002 - from would-be parking violators' decision-making, to understand better the cultural aspects of corruption.