Self-organization in Slovenian public spending
Private businesses are often entrusted with public contracts, wherein public money is allocated to a private company. This process raises concerns about transparency, even in the most developed democracies. But are there any regularities guiding this process? Do all private companies benefit equally...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2023-08-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.221279 |
| _version_ | 1797760039207829504 |
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| author | Jelena Joksimović Matjaž Perc Zoran Levnajić |
| author_facet | Jelena Joksimović Matjaž Perc Zoran Levnajić |
| author_sort | Jelena Joksimović |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Private businesses are often entrusted with public contracts, wherein public money is allocated to a private company. This process raises concerns about transparency, even in the most developed democracies. But are there any regularities guiding this process? Do all private companies benefit equally from the state budgets? Here, we tackle these questions focusing on the case of Slovenia, which keeps excellent records of this kind of public spending. We examine a dataset detailing every transfer of public money to the private sector from January 2003 to May 2020. During this time, Slovenia has conducted business with no less than 248 989 private companies. We find that the cumulative distribution of money received per company can be reasonably well explained by a power-law or lognormal fit. We also show evidence for the first-mover advantage, and determine that companies receive new funding in a way that is roughly linear over time. These results indicate that, despite all human factors involved, Slovenian public spending is at least to some extent regulated by emergent self-organizing principles. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T18:53:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e0f81273083949d2ab3f649e993859da |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T18:53:02Z |
| publishDate | 2023-08-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-e0f81273083949d2ab3f649e993859da2023-08-02T07:05:18ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032023-08-0110810.1098/rsos.221279Self-organization in Slovenian public spendingJelena Joksimović0Matjaž Perc1Zoran Levnajić2Faculty of Information Sciences in Novo Mesto, Ljubljanska cesta 31A, Novo Mesto 8000, SloveniaFaculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Koroška cesta 160, Maribor 2000, SloveniaFaculty of Information Sciences in Novo Mesto, Ljubljanska cesta 31A, Novo Mesto 8000, SloveniaPrivate businesses are often entrusted with public contracts, wherein public money is allocated to a private company. This process raises concerns about transparency, even in the most developed democracies. But are there any regularities guiding this process? Do all private companies benefit equally from the state budgets? Here, we tackle these questions focusing on the case of Slovenia, which keeps excellent records of this kind of public spending. We examine a dataset detailing every transfer of public money to the private sector from January 2003 to May 2020. During this time, Slovenia has conducted business with no less than 248 989 private companies. We find that the cumulative distribution of money received per company can be reasonably well explained by a power-law or lognormal fit. We also show evidence for the first-mover advantage, and determine that companies receive new funding in a way that is roughly linear over time. These results indicate that, despite all human factors involved, Slovenian public spending is at least to some extent regulated by emergent self-organizing principles.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.221279corruptionpublic spendingSloveniaself-organizationpower lawpreferential attachment |
| spellingShingle | Jelena Joksimović Matjaž Perc Zoran Levnajić Self-organization in Slovenian public spending Royal Society Open Science corruption public spending Slovenia self-organization power law preferential attachment |
| title | Self-organization in Slovenian public spending |
| title_full | Self-organization in Slovenian public spending |
| title_fullStr | Self-organization in Slovenian public spending |
| title_full_unstemmed | Self-organization in Slovenian public spending |
| title_short | Self-organization in Slovenian public spending |
| title_sort | self organization in slovenian public spending |
| topic | corruption public spending Slovenia self-organization power law preferential attachment |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.221279 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jelenajoksimovic selforganizationinslovenianpublicspending AT matjazperc selforganizationinslovenianpublicspending AT zoranlevnajic selforganizationinslovenianpublicspending |