DIGITALIZATION OF THE REGIONAL ECONOMY AS A MECHANISM FOR REDUCING CORRUPTION-RELATED COSTS: THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL MATURITY ON THE ECONOMIC RETURN OF ANTI-CORRUPTION MEASURES

Abstract

The study aims to assess the impact of regional digital maturity on corruption-related costs and the economic return of anti-corruption measures. Based on a dataset of average values for 2020–2025, 15 constituent entities of the Russian Federation were compared and categorized into three digital maturity groups. The methodology employed grouping, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, OLS regression, and a survey of 580 respondents. Strong correlations were established between digital maturity and a reduction in corruption-related crimes (r = −0.92) and the share of single-source procurements (r = −0.88), as well as an increase in budget savings (r = +0.86). The average economic return was 61.4% in the high-maturity group, 50.2% in the medium-maturity group, and 32.7% in the low-maturity group. It is concluded that digitalization enhances the transparency of procedures and the effectiveness of anti-corruption policy, provided there is high-quality data, workforce training, and independent oversight.