Andrea Tulli (University of Tübingen) 2.3.2023

It is our pleasure that Dr. Andrea Tulli (University of Tübingen) will present on Thursday, March 2, 2022, at 12:45 in room RB437 about his research on the topic “Sweeping the Dirt Under the Rug: Measuring Spillovers of an Anti-Corruption Measure“

Registration is not required and anyone who would like to attend is warmly invited.

BIO: Andrea Tulli is an Assistant Professor (non-tenure) in Public Economics at the University of Tübingen. He is also a member of the RSIT. He received my Ph.D. from the University of Warwick in 2020. I am an applied microeconomist who specializes in public procurement and local public finance.

ABSTRACT: This paper studies the spillover effects of an anti-corruption measure on the procurement behavior of Italian municipalities. It documents two responses. First, municipalities neighboring treated ones issue smaller contracts in corruption-vulnerable sectors. These contracts involve less stringent evidentiary requirements, making them harder to monitor. In particular, neighboring municipalities avoid stricter procurement rules by splitting large projects into multiple below-threshold contracts. Second, neighboring municipalities renegotiate fewer contracts, a practice signaling potential irregularities. These results suggest that neighboring municipalities respond by exploiting less-monitored margins of the procurement process and engaging less in activities that signal potential irregularities.