Mihály Fazekas (DPP) , together with coauthors, wins the prestigious award for best paper in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

Mihaly Fazekas (CEU DPP) and his co-authors, Romain Ferrali (Aix-Marseille University) and Johannes Wachs (CEU alumnus, currently at Corvinus University of Budapest), won the 2024 Beryl Radin Award, recognizing their article "Agency Independence, Campaign Contributions, and Favoritism in US Federal Government Contracting" as the best in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART).  The Beryl Radin Award is for the best article published in JPART and it is awarded annually by the Public Management Research Association (PMRA).

See the journal article: https://academic.oup.com/jpart/article/33/2/262/6586849?searchresult=1

The article looks at the question: “How do companies’ political donations affect their treatment in US federal procurement?”

We find that, on average, company donations somewhat increase the risk of favoritism in government contracting, with large donations to the president's party, however, substantially heighten these risks (See chart below).

Moreover, the corrupting impact of money in US politics is particularly strong when multiple conditions are met: both the donation is large enough to matter and the party is in control of the bureaucracy to pay the favour back. On the below chart, it can be seen how the effect of donations on favoristic contracting in federal agencies differ according to the degree of insulation from politics.

The policy implications and profound and actionable, insulating public bureaucracies from politics, if adequately implemented, is expected to effectively curb political corruption.