Erik Wibbels

May 17, 2023 | onlinelibrary.wiley.com | Elaine Denny |Ngoc Phan |Diego Romero |Erik Wibbels

Abstract There is growing affinity for audits as a tool to promote political accountability and reduce corruption. Nevertheless, knowledge about the mechanisms through which audits work remains limited. While most work on audits shows that they can work via citizen sanctions of bad performers, we emphasize that audit effects can also run through prospective incentives, that is, the desire to avoid poor audit results in the first place.