Public sector reforms and their impact on the level of corruption: A systematic review

Abstract

Background: In spite of the large number of anti-corruption reforms implemented in different countries, there has been little research that empirically and systematically assesses the impact of these efforts. Objectives:The main objective of this review is to identify what works in curbing corruption in the public sector, by meta-analyzing the findings of published and unpublished evaluations of different types of anti-corruption interventions in different countries. The focus of this review is administrative corruption, namely corrupt acts involving civil servants in their dealings with their superiors, during the implementation of public policies, or while interacting with the public for service delivery. Political corruption (in the adoption of laws, regulations, and policies), and private-to-private corruption (involving only private actors) are excluded from this review.Search methods: The literature search was conducted by querying three widely recognized electronic databases: RePEc, SSRN, and Web of Science. These databases are considered the most comprehensive in the socio-economic field of research. The main grey literature repositories were also queried. Both published and unpublished studies were searched on the basis of specific combinations of keywords. The terms used to define queries were based on the "types of corruption", "types of interventions/policies/reforms" and "study design" search strings. Specific conventions were used to "explode" or "truncate" keywords as appropriate. Screening of the references (i.e., snowballing) of the identified studies was also performed, and a reverse snowballing approach on Google Scholar was used. In order to ensure replicability, all searches were stored into Covidence, an online software developed by the Cochrane community for screening studies and extracting data for systematic reviews.

Policing “Landscapes” for the Rule of Law and Public Protection: the State of Evidence on Organisational Policies, Structures, and Human Resources

“…A Campbell Review of anti-corruption interventions also found that combinations of control and deterrence measures were the most effective approaches (Mugellini et al, 2021). The evidence in that review and in Borges et al would also appear to offer support for the potential effectiveness of an oversight model such as the Police Inspectorate in England and Wales, in which regular and thematic audits and inspections are conducted and published.…”

Covid and Public Funds: More Opportunities for a Misuse? The Case of the Intermediate Governments of Galicia

“…Transparency is essential to ensure compliance with legal procurement procedures, promote competition and allow for the control of bias in the contract awarding. Anessi-Pessina et al ( 2020 ) and Mugellini et al ( 2021 ) argue that a new framework is needed to effectively address corruption and abuses even more during emergencies. In this sense, citizen participation is crucial to ensure good governance, but also the deployment of mechanisms such as effective audits, accountability, and transparency.…”

Deliberasi untuk Demokrasi Pasca Pandemi Indonesia

“…Aktivisme sosial dapat menjadi kolaborator dalam demokrasi deliberatif saat pandemi. Bahkan, sebuah meta-analisis dari studi-studi eksperimental di negara berpendapatan rendah, menengah, dan tinggi menemukan bahwa pengawasan dari gerakan masyarakat dapat mengurangi tindakan korupsi (Mugellini et al, 2021).…”