Procuring Low Growth : The Impact of Political Favoritism on Public Procurement and Firm Performance in Bulgaria

Fazekas, Mihaly; Poltoratskaya, Viktoriia; Marc Tobias Schiffbauer; Tóth, Bence. Procuring Low Growth : The Impact of Political Favoritism on Public Procurement and Firm Performance in Bulgaria (English). Policy Research Working Paper WPS11085; Prosperity Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. 

This paper assesses the impact of favoritism in public procurement on private sector productivity growth. To this end, it combines three novel microeconomic data sets: administrative data on firms, including more than 4 million firm-year observations and rich financial and ownership …

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Data Science Meets Political Economy: Applications to Legislative Favouritism around the World

Benoit, Cyril; Brenner, Dominik & Fazekas, Mihály (2025) Data Science Meets Political Economy: Applications to Legislative Favouritism around the World. In Sarah Giest, Bram Klievink, Alex Ingrams, and Matt Young (eds.): Handbook of Governance and Data Science. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. Chapter 3.

Merging governance studies and data science, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of how these fields interact with each other, driving a greater understanding of and guidance for the data-driven transformation of government.

Bringing together contributions from …

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Maximising the Benefits of Effective Competition in Public Procurement in Slovenia

OECD (2025), Maximising the Benefits of Effective Competition in Public Procurement in Slovenia, OECD Public Governance Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c1e5d31f-en.

This report analyses competition in public procurement in Slovenia and the rationale behind the high prevalence of single-bidding and negotiated procedures without prior publication. It provides an empirical analysis of competition, using procurement data and several variables. It also provides recommendations for potential improvements to the institutional and regulatory frameworks to foster competition in Slovenia. Finally, it provides …

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The impact of emergencies on corruption risks: Italian natural disasters and public procurement

Fazekas, Mihály; Nishchal, Shrey & Soreide, Tina (2025) The impact of emergencies on corruption risks: Italian natural disasters and public procurement. Regulation & Governance.

 

Theory and case studies suggest that emergencies and disasters increase corruption, especially in public procurement, hampering relief and reconstruction efforts. Despite a growing interest in the topic, including in research, there is still little systematic evidence about these effects, their structure and trajectories. We set out to investigate the medium-term impact of disasters on corruption …

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Measuring the Risk of Corruption and Its Price Impact in North Macedonia 2011–2022

Fazekas, Mihály; Abdou, Aly; Ibrahimi, Klea; Tóth, Bence; & Veljanov, Zdravko (2024) Measuring the Risk of Corruption and Its Price Impact in North Macedonia 2011–2022. Policy Research working paper: WPS11007, Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Public procurement in North Macedonia amounted to 16 percent of total government expenditure in 2018, or 5 percent of gross domestic product. The country’s public procurement is also vulnerable to corruption risks, which typically push prices up, leading to overspending. To support better budget policies, this …

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North Macedonia: Public Finance Review. Ensuring Stability and Boosting Resilience.

Fazekas, M.; Regös, N.; Tóth, B.; Ibrahimi, K.; and Zdravko Veljanov (2024) Improving the Efficiency of Public Procurement. In World Bank (2024) North Macedonia: Public Finance Review. Ensuring Stability and Boosting Resilience. Chapter 6.A. World Bank, Washington, DC.

This report proposes designing such a strategy in light of macroeconomic risks. It analyzes North Macedonia’s major macroeconomic and fiscal weaknesses, risks, and debt sustainability. It discusses tax policy and compliance challenges. Regarding government effectiveness, thereport highlights the need to enhance public …

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Green Is Less Greedy : Competition, Corruption, and Productivity in Green Public Procurement in Bulgaria

Poltoratskaia,Viktoriia; Fazekas,Mihaly; Quintero,Maria Fernanda; & Schiffbauer, Marc Tobias. (2024) Green Is Less Greedy: Competition, Corruption, and Productivity in Green Public Procurement in Bulgaria. Policy Research Working Paper: WPS10987, Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.

Although green public procurement has been established as a desirable policy goal across the globe, especially in the European Union, its scope and impacts remain severely understudied. This paper provides insights into the prevalence and structure of green public procurement in Bulgaria, which is a sustainability laggard …

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The political economy of open contracting reforms in low‐ and middle‐income countries

Adam, I., Dávid‐Barrett, E., & Fazekas, M. (2024). The political economy of open contracting reforms in low‐ and middle‐income countries. Governance, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12897

Transparency reforms make government contracting more open and amenable to public scrutiny, helping to improve public spending efficiency. But they are also politically sensitive, complex and highly technical, which makes them especially difficult to implement if state capacity is weak. Our research on nine low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia systematically assesses progress in improving …

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Measuring Legislative Predictability: The Case of the Kingdom of Jordan and Implications for the MENA Region

Fazekas, Mihály; Brenner, Dominik & Ladegaard, Peter Farup (2024), Measuring Legislative Predictability: The Case of the Kingdom of Jordan and Implications for the MENA Region, Policy Research working paper, WPS10864, World Bank Group

Laws and regulations represent a central tool for governments to achieve policy objectives, and they also represent a fundamental condition for making desirable individual and business decisions. While laws and regulations regularly have to be adapted to changing circumstances, frequent and sudden modifications indicate legislative unpredictability and …

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Predicting pharmaceutical prices. Advances based on purchase-level data and machine learning

Mihály Fazekas, Zdravko Veljanov and Alexandre Borges de Oliveira (2024) Predicting pharmaceutical prices. Advances based on purchase-level data and machine learning. BMC Public Health 24. Article 1888. 

Background

Increased costs in the health sector have put considerable strain on the public budgets allocated to pharmaceutical purchases. Faced with such pressures amplified by financial crises and pandemics, national purchasing authorities are presented with a puzzle: how to procure pharmaceuticals of the highest quality for the lowest price. The literature explored a …

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