Do Government Audits Reduce Corruption: Estimating the Impacts of Exposing Corrupt Politicians
Published By: NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH on eSS | Published Date: July , 2016This paper examines the extent to which government audits of public resources can reduce corruption by enhancing political and judiciary accountability. It does so in the context of Brazil’s anti-corruption program, which randomly audits municipalities for their use of federal funds. It finds that being audited in the past reduces future corruption by 8 percent, while also increasing the likelihood of experiencing a subsequent legal action by 20 percent. This paper interprets these reduced-form findings through a political agency model, which it structurally estimates. [Working Paper 22443]
Author(s): Eric Avis, Claudio Ferraz, Frederico Finan | Posted on: Jul 29, 2016 | Views()