Author: Isabelle Adam

Social capital predicts corruption risk in towns

Isabelle Adam

Wachs, J., Yasseri, T., Lengyel, B., Kertész, J. (2019). Social capital predicts corruption risk in towns. Royal Society Open Science 6: 182103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.182103

Corruption is a social plague: gains accrue to small groups, while its costs are borne by everyone. Significant variation in its level between and within countries suggests a relationship between social structure and the prevalence of corruption, yet, large-scale empirical studies thereof have been missing due to lack of data. In this paper, we relate the structural characteristics of social capital of settlements with corruption in their local governments. Using datasets from Hungary, we quantify corruption risk …

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Big Data Analytics for Social Science Research

Isabelle Adam

Mihály Fazekas has contributed two presentations to the SAGE Research Methods Video Platform on Data Science, Big Data Analytics, & Digital Methods.

 

Video 1: Introduction to Big Data for Social Science Research

Mihály Fazekas discusses using big data for social science research including, new data sources and what they can help achieve, the difference between big data and traditional research methodology, and the collection and analysis of big data.

Video 2: Using Big Data to Measure Formidable Concepts: The Case of Government Contracts Data & Corruption Measurement

Mihály Fazekas discusses the use of big data to measure government contracts …

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Administrative capacities that matter: organisational drivers of public procurement competitiveness in 32 European countries

Isabelle Adam

Cingolani, L. & Fazekas, M. (2019). Administrative capacities that matter: organisational drivers of public procurement competitiveness in 32 European countries. GTI-WP/2019:01, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

In spite of the many efforts in the pursuit of a European single market, many barriers continue to lie ahead, as the field of public procurement illustrates. In 2015, around 40% of all high-value procurement tenders in a large pool of European countries attracted only 2 bidders or less, and only 3% of all winning companies had their offices outside the procuring country. This paper explores a rather unaccounted dimension behind the competitiveness of tenders:

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Are emerging technologies helping win the fight against corruption in developing countries?

Isabelle Adam

Adam, I., and Fazekas, M. (2019). Are emerging technologies helping win the fight against corruption in developing countries? Pathways for Prosperity Commission Background Paper Series; no. 21. Oxford, United Kingdom

This paper systematically takes stock of the latest academic and policy literature that sheds light on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and their impact on corruption. The tools reviewed include digital public services, crowdsourcing platforms, whistleblowing tools, transparency portals, big data, distributed ledger technology (DLT), and artificial intelligence (AI). We scrutinise the evidence on various technologies’ effectiveness, drawbacks, and even potential misuse that enables corruption. Drawing on the commonalities …

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Political Competition and Public Procurement Outcomes

Isabelle Adam

Broms, R., Dahlström, C., & Fazekas, M. (2019). Political Competition and Public Procurement Outcomes. Comparative Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414019830723

This article asks if low political competition is associated with more restricted public procurement processes. Using unique Swedish municipal data from 2009 to 2015, it demonstrates that when one party dominates local politics, noncompetitive outcomes from public procurement processes are more common. What is most striking is that the risk of receiving only one bid, on what is intended to be an open and competitive tender, considerably increases with long-standing one-party rule. The article contributes to a significant body of work on …

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