The Agenda 2030 recognises corruption as a major obstacle to sustainable development and integrates its reduction among SDG targets, in view of developing peaceful, just and strong institutions. In this paper, we propose a method to assess the validity of corruption indicators within an Item Response Theory framework, which explicitly accounts for the latent and multidimensional facet of corruption. Towards this main aim, a set of fifteen red flag indicators of corruption risk in public procurement is computed on data included in the Italian National Database of Public Contracts. Results show a multidimensional structure composed of sub-groups of red flag indicators i. measuring distinct corruption risk categories, which differ in nature, type and entity, and are generally non-superimposable; ii. mirroring distinct dynamics related to specific SDG principles and targets.
@article{arxiv.2309.01462,
title = {Validating corruption risk measures: a key step to monitoring SDG progress},
author = {Michela Gnaldi and Simone Del Sarto},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.01462},
year = {2023}
}