The Lacuna Project

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Exhibit 1233

Do Government Audits Reduce Corruption? Estimating the Impacts of Exposing Corrupt Politicians (NBER Working Paper 22443, 2016; Journal of Political Economy 126(5):1912-1964, 2018)

Exhibit 1233 ยท Peer-reviewed article (working-paper abstract read)

Do Government Audits Reduce Corruption? Estimating the Impacts of Exposing Corrupt Politicians (NBER Working Paper 22443, 2016; Journal of Political Economy 126(5):1912-1964, 2018)

We find 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.

Using Brazil's random audits of municipalities, the authors find that being audited in the past reduces later corruption and raises the chance of a later legal action, and that most of the reduction comes through higher perceived non-electoral costs of corruption.

Source
Eric Avis, Claudio Ferraz and Frederico Finan
Date
July 2016 (working paper); October 2018 (journal)
Quoted from
Abstract, NBER Working Paper 22443 (July 2016)
Grade
Peer-reviewed
Document
https://www.nber.org/papers/w22443
Accessed
2026-11-10
Cited by
Findings citing this exhibit
Note
Text read is the NBER abstract; JPE wording unchecked. The effect depends on audits leading to legal action, which links to audit with sanction.

Cited by

No published finding cites this exhibit.