Transparency or Access? E‐Procurement's Two Paths to Integrity: Evidence From Italy

This paper examines whether e-procurement adoption is associated with procedural competition and transparency, two core components of procurement integrity. Using award-level microdata for Italian regional contracting authorities (2019–2023), we analyze a period preceding the legal obligation of full-cycle digital procurement, when the use of e-procurement tools remained discretionary across authorities. We construct three procedure-level indicators—notice-to-deadline length, single bidding, and ex-post outcome communication—and estimate pooled OLS, Probit, and Linear Probability models with extensive controls and robustness checks. We find that e-procurement adoption is differentially associated with these indicators across procedure types: it reduces single-bid outcomes in non-competitive procedures, while in competitive settings it lengthens submission periods and increases the likelihood of end-of-procedure communication. Although correlational, the results suggest that discretionary digitalization can reinforce procedural competition and disclosure practices through transparency and traceability gains.