The Information Transparency of Public Procurement in Russian Regions: Estimation and Explanations

Abstract

A.А. Balsevich, S.G. Pivovarova, E.А. Podkolzina, State University – Higher School of Economics

As the result of public procurement reform of 2005 in Russia the regional procurers were obliged to publish the information on procedures and contracts at the regional procurement web sites. But the law did not specify the standards and rules for structure of the site and the information which should be available. As a result, the information transparency differs significantly across the regions. In the paper we measure the transparency of information on public procurement for 83 Russian regions and explore the possible explanations for such differences.