Working papers

Introducing E-Procurement in Bangladesh: The Promise of Efficiency and Openness

Blum, J. R., Datta, A., Fazekas, M., Samaddar, S. and Siddique, I. (2023). Introducing E-Procurement in Bangladesh: The Promise of Efficiency and Openness (English). Policy Research working paper; no. WPS 10390; Impact Evaluation series Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group. 

Governments around the world spend about one-third of their budgets through public procurement systems where electronic administration of public tenders promises great benefits. However, surprisingly little is known about how, under which circumstances, and through which features electronic systems work. …

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Advances in measuring corruption and agenda for the future

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 …

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Assessing Vulnerabilities to Corruption in Public Procurement and Their Price Impact

Abdou, A., Basdevant, O., Dávid-Barrett, E. and Fazekas, M. (2022). Assessing Vulnerabilities to Corruption in Public Procurement and Their Price Impact. IMF WP/2022/094.

Public procurement can be highly vulnerable to corruption. This paper outlines a methodology and results in assessing corruption risks in public procurement and their impact on relative prices, using large databases on government contracts and tenders. Our primary contribution is to analyze how price differential in public procurement contracts can be explained by corruption risk factor (aggregated …

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Public procurement cartels: A systematic testing of old and new screens

Adam, I., Fazekas, M., Kazmina, Y., Teremy, Zs., Tóth, B., Villamil, I., R. and Wachs, J. (2022). Public procurement cartels: A systematic testing of old and new screens. GTI-WP/2022:01, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

Though cartels are thought to be common, they tend to be hard to find. Successful prosecutions are even more rare, and usually begin with an exceptional event: when a cartel member makes a sloppy mistake or decides to blow the whistle. Researchers have long studied these cases …

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COVID-19 emergency public procurement in Romania: Corruption risks and market behavior

Abdou, A., Czibik, Á., Tóth, B. and Fazekas, M. (2021): COVID-19 emergency public procurement in Romania: Corruption risks and market behavior. GTI-WP/2021:03, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

The aim of this research is to track corruption risks affecting the Romanian public procurement system during the COVID-19 emergency. We develop a composite Corruption Risk Index (CRI) to track public procurement contracting risks in Romania in the period from 2015 to 2021. We find that the emergency context exposed the procurement process to …

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Global Public Procurement Open Competition Index

Adam, I., H. Sanchez, A. and Fazekas, M. (2021). Global Public Procurement Open Competition Index. GTI-WP/2021:02, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

This evidence paper seeks to clearly outline the benefits of open competition in public procurement, review the policies fostering it and measuring competitive outcomes in carefully selected comparable markets across a wide array of countries. Our review of evidence regarding benefits of and policies for open competition is based on high-quality academic and policy offering reliable quantitative estimates. Our competition …

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Lowering Prices of Pharmaceuticals, Medical Supplies, and Equipment: Insights from Big Data for Better Procurement Strategies in Latin America

Fazekas, M., Borges de Oliveira, A., Regös, N. (2021). Lowering Prices of Pharmaceuticals, Medical Supplies, and Equipment: Insights from Big Data for Better Procurement Strategies in Latin America. Policy Research Working Paper No. 9689. World Bank Group, Latin America and the Caribbean Region.

Containing rapidly growing health care costs in the Latin American and the Caribbean region, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, requires an in-depth analysis of prices from a novel perspective. This paper documents hitherto understudied variations in prices …

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Improving Public Procurement Outcomes: Review of Tools and the State of the Evidence Base

Fazekas, M. and René Blum, J. (2021). Improving Public Procurement Outcomes: Review of Tools and the State of the Evidence Base. Policy Research Working Paper No. 9690. World Bank Group, Governance Global Practice.

Considering that about 15 percent of global gross domestic product flows through public procurement systems, the lack of systematic evidence on what works in this field is a major challenge for effective policy making. Hence, this paper systematically reviews the state of the evidence on major public …

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Open and Sustainable Procurement

Adam, I., Fazekas, M. and Zellmann, C. (2021). Open and sustainable procurement. Towards deepened collaboration between reformers. GTI-WP/2021:01, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

Public procurement as a major area of government spending has the potential to act as a driver for social change and sustainable development. Its strategic use has recently gained traction with two related policy movements emerging: sustainable public procurement (SPP) and open contracting (OC). This paper explores paths towards a deepened collaboration between open and sustainable procurement advocates …

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State Capture and Defence Procurement in the EU

Czibik, Á., Fazekas, M., Hernandez Sanchez, A. and Wachs, J. (2020). State Capture and Defence Procurement in the EU. GTI-WP/2020:05, Budapest: Government Transparency Institute.

This paper is part of a broader research project which aims to assess state capture risks in the field of defence procurement using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to overcome research challenges typical of this area, most of all the relatively low level of transparency due to specific procurement regulations. In this paper, we …

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