Using beneficial ownership data for large-scale risk assessment in public procurement. The example of 6 European countries.
Description
This database is a compilation of datasets of matched public procurement with beneficial ownership (BO) records by country. The database was used to conduct a systematic assessment of corruption risks in government contracting in the academic article: Arista, Irene Tello; Fazekas, Mihály & Volkotrub, Antonina (2026), Using beneficial ownership data for large-scale risk assessment in public procurement. The example of 6 European countries. European Journal of Criminal Policy and Research. Overall, it contains approximately 8 million public procurement contracts with beneficial ownership information for 11 million companies across Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. The dataset includes tender-level corruption risk indicators, buyer and contract characteristics, and several BO-based risk indicators capturing ownership structure, as well as political exposure, nationality, and residence of beneficial owners. Several variables were constructed to identify unusual or outlier BO features –such as high ownership concentration of firms under one person, frequent BO changes, and absence of BO data– and other commonly used firm-level risk indicators, including company age and political connections, were included. The database was designed to test non-linear and fixed-effects analyses of the relationship between beneficial ownership characteristics and corruption risks in public procurement, and to facilitate the validation and practical use of BO-based risk indicators for research, policy analysis, and investigative purposes.