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Corporate entertainment expenses and corruption in public procurement

Sungwon Kang, Daehwan Kim and Geonhyeong Kim

Journal of Asian Economics, 2023, vol. 84, issue C

Abstract: Viewing corporate entertainment of public officials as a form of bribes, Korea recently adopted a strong regulation against such practice (the Antigraft Act of 2016). In this paper, we investigate whether the regulation succeeded in reducing corruption in public procurement. An examination of the procurement system in Korea suggests that bribe-paying firms submit lower bids to procurement auctions than non-bribe-paying firms and that the difference in bid aggressiveness between bribe-paying and non-bribe-paying firms can be used as an indicator of the prevalence of corruption. Using the bidding data of firms participating in Korea Online E-Procurement System (KONEPS) auctions, we document that this indicator of corruption declined after the new regulation was adopted. We conclude that the new regulation reduced the entertainment-expense channel of corruption in public procurement.

Keywords: Public procurement auction; Corruption; Bribery; Antigraft act; Corporate entertainment expenses (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D44 D73 H57 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:asieco:v:84:y:2023:i:c:s1049007822001105

DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2022.101554

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