DOI: 10.3886/e187562v1
title: Data and Code for: Distortion by Audit: Evidence from Public Procurement

description: Public sector audits are a key element of state capacity. However, we find that they can create unintended distortions. Regression discontinuity analysis from Chile shows that audits lowered the use of auctions for public procurement, reduced supplier competition, and increased the likelihood of incumbent, small, and local firms winning contracts. Looking inside the black box of the audit process reveals that relative to comparable direct contracts, auctions underwent more than twice as many checks and led to twice as many detected infractions. Procurement officers perceive the consequences of such detected infractions as severe. These findings show that standard audit protocols can mechanically discourage the use of more regulated, complex and transparent procedures that involve more auditable steps.
description: N/A
description: Response Rates: <b>Online survey</b>. Of the total of 790 officers contacted, 213 responded to the survey, resulting in a response rate of 27%.
description: Presence of Common Scales: <b>Online survey</b>. Some questions in the online questionnaire have a finite list of responses, namely:<br>Severity. 1 to 10 scale, where 1 means "not serious at all" and 10 means "very serious".Likelihood. Never (1) A little likely (2) Very likely (3) Don't know (4).Never (1) Sometimes (2) Frequently (3)
description: <b>Online survey</b>. The sample frame was defined following a two-stage procedure. In the first stage, we identified the entities that have been audited for the period 2015-2021 using two different sources: (i) Information provided by the CGR (2015-2021), and (ii). Information scraped from the CGR webpage (2016-2020). We must highlight that both datasets only include audits for which a final report has been published. To define the sample frame at the entity level, we defined four eligibility criteria: <br>Include entities that have been audited in the past couple of years (2019-2020). Exclude entities audited in “Public Works” in the last 5 years Exclude entities audited in “Special Investigations” in the last 5 yearsExclude entities that couldn’t be uniquely identified in the ChileCompra system.213 out of 1,956 entities met these 4 eligibility criteria. For the second stage, procurement officers that belong to the 213 entities chosen in the first stage, were considered part of the final sample if they meet the following criteria:<br>Users that have been active for at least 2 years in the ChileCompra systemUsers whose last date of activity in the ChileCompra system is greater than or equal to January 2019.Users whose role in the ChileCompra system is “operator” or “supervisor”.The personal information and contact details of the procurement officers are publicly available on ChileCompra’s website. 790 out of 5,835 procurement officers met the eligibility criteria. The 790 procurement officials were contacted through email in 7 groups in two different survey rounds.
description: Chilean public entities. Chilean procurement officers. Smallest Geographic Unit: Chile
description: other; web-based survey; N/A