eprintid: 10153181 rev_number: 7 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/15/31/81 datestamp: 2022-08-04 10:46:35 lastmod: 2022-08-04 10:46:35 status_changed: 2022-08-04 10:46:35 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Woodhouse, Eleanor Florence title: Accountability and corruption displacement: evidence from Italy ispublished: inpress divisions: C03 divisions: F30 divisions: B03 divisions: UCL keywords: accountability, corruption displacement, political appointments note: © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract: One of the reasons for which corruption is so difficult to eradicate is because the actors involved are skilled in adapting their behaviour to changing institutional landscapes. However, surprisingly little is known about how corruption displacement functions across multiple levels of government. Using novel multilevel data on a political scandal in Italy and a Difference-in-Differences estimation strategy, I provide within-country evidence that a sudden increase in accountability for national deputies can impact negatively upon the behaviour of local-level public officials and politicians. In treated districts, where there is an increase in the indictment rate of national deputies, local-level corruption increases significantly as compared to nontreated districts. My results show how, in contexts characterised by systemic corruption, changes intended to enhance accountability can trigger a series of mechanisms within the political machine that exploit different levels of government. date: 2022-07-21 date_type: published publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP) official_url: https://doi.org/10.1017/s0143814x22000113 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1967797 doi: 10.1017/s0143814x22000113 lyricists_name: Woodhouse, Eleanor lyricists_id: WOODH90 actors_name: Kalinowski, Damian actors_id: DKALI47 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Journal of Public Policy pagerange: 1-25 citation: Woodhouse, Eleanor Florence; (2022) Accountability and corruption displacement: evidence from Italy. Journal of Public Policy pp. 1-25. 10.1017/s0143814x22000113 <https://doi.org/10.1017/s0143814x22000113>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10153181/1/Woodhouse_Accountability%20and%20corruption%20displacement_AOP.pdf