Public Sector Strategies in Curbing Corruption: A Review of the Literature

Corruption is widespread and preventive strategies to reduce corruption need to be adapted within the local context. Considering the United Nations (UN) Convention against corruption as our starting point, the paper presents a literature review based on 118 articles on corruption prevention initiatives in the public sector. The analysis indicates a substantial alignment between the guidelines deriving from the UN Convention, except for a lack of work on the risk-based approach to corruption prevention. Further, the review indicates problems with research designs. Based on the insights generated from the analysis, we develop an agenda for future research.

Automated summary

This paper examines corruption prevention initiatives in the public sector, based on a literature review of 118 articles. The findings show a significant alignment with the guidelines from the UN Convention against corruption, except for a lack of research on risk-based approaches. The review also highlights problems with research designs.