Fazekas, M. and Ferrali, R. (2023). Advances in measuring corruption and agenda for the future. GTI-WP/2023:01, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.
Measuring corruption is indispensable for identifying effective anticorruption policies and tracking progress towards lower levels of corruption. While there is a widespread perception that researchers and policymakers lack adequate quantitative corruption indicators, we argue that in fact there is an abundance of such metrics, although gaps remain. Tried-and-tested indicators range from expert ratings through national representative bribery surveys until transaction-based proxy indicators such as public procurement risk indicators. However, the diversity of measurement instruments and corrupt behaviours tracked creates new challenges: selecting indicators congruent with research and policy objectives, and combining different indicators into a coherent assessment (e.g. composite scores). This article reviews a series of state-of-the-art indicators and provides guidance to researchers and policymakers in selecting indicators appropriate to diverse use-cases.
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