Corruption has reached alarming levels in recent years and now costs the equivalent of about 5% of global output annually. Given this backdrop, this study sets out to investigate how corruption and the production structure affects the socioeconomic development of developing countries, applying a dynamic panel data procedure to the period 2002-2014. The main findings include the fact that the relation between corruption and development is non-linear. The study of the different dimensions of development also needs to encompass both economic and social perspectives. In general, there are signs that a more sophisticated production structure distorts the effects of corruption control by strengthening the influence of corruption itself on socioeconomic development.