Soto-Tamayo and Torres-Raposo Secure Grant for Project on Public Servants

GCDC Quantitative Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Luis Soto-Tamayo (UCL) and Dr Felipe Torres-Raposo (LSE) have secured a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for a project investigating how audits shape the behaviour of public servants, and whether family or political connections blunt their effect. This project combines two approaches: a systematic review of existing global evidence on anti-corruption mechanisms, and an empirical analysis of over one million Chilean civil servants (2015–2025). Survey data will also shed light on these mechanisms and on how bureaucrats themselves perceive audits and sanctions. The goal is to move beyond what we know about politicians and oversight agencies, and to better understand the behaviour and incentives of both elected officials and civil servants who enforce or stretch the rules.