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Are emerging technologies helping win the fight against corruption? A review of the state of evidence

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  • Adam, Isabelle
  • Fazekas, Mihály

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is often thought of as a uniformly positive tool making governments more transparent, accountable, and less corrupt. However, the evidence on it is mixed and often misunderstood. Hence, this article carries out a systematic stocktaking of ICT tools’ impact on corruption, offering a nuanced and context-dependent assessment. The tools reviewed are digital public services, crowdsourcing platforms, whistleblowing tools, transparency portals, distributed ledger technology, and artificial intelligence. We scrutinise the evidence both on ICTs’ anticorruption effectiveness and misuse for corruption. Drawing on the commonalities across technologies, we find that ICT can support anti-corruption by impacting public scrutiny in numerous ways: enabling reporting on corruption, promoting transparency and accountability, facilitating citizen participation and government-citizen interactions. However, ICT can also provide new corruption opportunities through the dark web, cryptocurrencies, or the misuse of technologies such as centralised databases. The introduction of ICT tools does not automatically translate into anti-corruption outcomes; rather, impact hinges on the matching between ICT tools and the local context, including support for and skills in using technology.

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  • Adam, Isabelle & Fazekas, Mihály, 2021. "Are emerging technologies helping win the fight against corruption? A review of the state of evidence," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:57:y:2021:i:c:s016762452100038x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2021.100950
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    5. Whitley, Edgar A. & Martinez, Tatiana, 2023. "Open data as an anticorruption tool? Using distributed cognition to understand breakdowns in the creation of transparency data," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118578, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Bedri Kamil Onur Tas, 2024. "A machine learning approach to detect collusion in public procurement with limited information," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 1913-1935, October.
    7. Li Yang & Wenxiu Hu & Zhenxing Su & Jianqi Qiao, 2024. "Impact of Anti-Corruption on the Sustainability of Local Government Debt in China: The Moderating Role of Fiscal Transparency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-29, October.
    8. Asaad Alzayed, 2024. "Evaluating the Role of Requirements Engineering Practices in the Sustainability of Electronic Government Solutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-20, January.
    9. Gholipour, Hassan F. & Arjomandi, Amir & Andargoli, Amirhossein Eslami & Bennett, Rohan, 2023. "On real estate market transparency: The relationship with ICT trade and investment," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).

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