Adequate wages are an important tool to shield public officials from special interests and corruption. But what is the … significantly more likely to prevent corruption in public procurement, a key area of illicit interactions between the state and … limit corruption, but also foster the use of violence as an alternative tool to influence policymaking …

for private gain. We study the relationship between discretion and corruption in Italian government procurement auctions …, using a confidential database of firms and procurement officials investigated for corruption by Italian enforcement … associated with corruption only when conducted with fewer than the formally required number of bidders or employing discretionary …

We examine the correlation between gender and bureaucratic corruption using two distinct datasets, one from Italy and a … second from China. In each case, we find that women are far less likely to be investigated for corruption than men. In our … Italian data, female procurement officials are 34 percent less likely than men to be investigated for corruption by …

We conduct parallel surveys of legislators and citizens in three countries to study their tolerance for corruption. In … Italy, Colombia, and Pakistan legislators and citizens respond similarly to hypothetical scenarios involving trade …-offs between, for example, probity and efficiency: both perceive corruption as undesirable but prevalent. These novel descriptive …

possible to establish robust bounds on equilibrium corruption using only non-verifiable reports. Our analysis suggests a simple …