Do Economic Recovery Packages Open a Window of Opportunity for Corruption and Mismanagement? The Case of Italy in the Aftermath of the Covid-19 Pandemic

This paper explores the effects of pandemic on corruption and mismanagement in Italy, a country where Covid-19 crisis is supposed to have significantly increased risk corruption. It proposes novel operationalization safeguards for accountability that are attached disbursement recovery funds. Emergency law decrees their implementing acts been coded assess whether discretion allocation funds has constrained by transparency requirements enforcement provisions. Findings reveal strengthened over time but they followed various patterns across measures targeting businesses people.