Dear colleagues, we cordially invite you to our online research seminar on Wed, 2nd of December, 2020, 4pm: Andrea Tulli (University of Tübingen) https://sites.google.com/view/andreatulli/home <https://sites.google.com/view/andreatulli/home> "Sweeping the Dirt Under the Rug: Measuring Spillovers from an Anti-Corruption Measure" https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/atulli/jmp.pdf <https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/atulli/jmp.pdf> Abstract: Using data on Italian public procurement, I show that the implementation of a law enforcement measure on a municipal government has two effects on neighbouring municipalities. First, they increase the number of contracts under a threshold below which evidentiary requirements become less stringent, making it more difficult to prove any infraction. This response accounts for 1 percent of the yearly expenditure on large contracts. Second, they renegotiate fewer contracts, a practice that is often associated with corruption. The results suggest that, in response to law enforcement, local administrators exploit less monitored margins of the procurement process and engage less in activities that are signals of potential corruption so as to minimise scrutiny by law enforcement bodies. I provide evidence that this is indeed the case. Using a technique from natural language processing, I show that municipalities split large projects into contracts smaller than the threshold and the response occurs only in sectors that are more vulnerable to corruption (i.e. construction and waste management). Andrea Tulli obtained his PhD from Warwick (2020) and is as an Assistant Professor at the University of Tübingen. He is an applied microeconomist who specializes in public procurement and fiscal federalism. Please register at https://www.jku.at/en/department-of-economics/research/research-events/onlin... for the zoom link. With best regards, René Böheim -- PD René Böheim, PhD Department of Economics JOHANNES KEPLER UNIVERSITÄT LINZ Altenberger Straße 69 4040 Linz, Österreich P +43-732-2468-7369 www.econ.jku.at/boeheim <http://www.econ.jku.at/boeheim> Research: http://ideas.repec.org/e/pbh15.html <http://ideas.repec.org/e/pbh15.html>