"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be."
Lord Kelvin

New ways to measure institutionalised grand corruption in public procurement

Publications, Reports

Fazekas M. – Tóth I. J.. (2014), New ways to measure institutionalised grand corruption in public procurement. U4 Policy Brief, October 2014 No 9, CMI-U4.

Public procurement, one of the largest areas of public spending worldwide, gives public officials wide discretion. It is therefore unsurprising that it is also one of the government functions most often vulnerable to corruption. While there have been many qualitative accounts of high-level corruption in public contracting, it is only recently that quantitative indicators have become available. By making use of big data generated by governments on contracts, companies, and individuals, it is possible to develop a new generation of quantitative indicators which can be used to guide policy intervention and support control of corruption.

U4 Policy Brief

CRCB Background report (more extended than the U4 Brief)