Analysing corruption: effects on the transparency of public administrations

There is a vast body of literature supporting the claim that the availability and accessibility of information play a vital role in contrasting corruption. Bastida and Benito (2007) demonstrate that the less corrupt a country is, the higher its level of budget transparency is, entailing that is not transparency which curbs corruption but rather the other way around. In this latter perspective the present study tries to contribute to the debate about transparency and corruption through the analysis of a case related to the diffusion of corruption in the twenty Italian regions. The study demonstrates that in regions with higher levels of corruption public administrations commitment towards transparency is lower compared to regions with inferior corruption levels.