Rauch, Bernhard and Goettsche, Max and Braehler, Gernot and Engel, Stefan (2011) Fact and Fiction in EU-Governmental Economic Data. GERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, 12 (3). pp. 243-255. ISSN 1465-6485,
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To detect manipulations or fraud in accounting data, auditors have successfully used Benford's law as part of their fraud detection processes. Benford's law proposes a distribution for first digits of numbers in naturally occurring data. Government accounting and statistics are similar in nature to financial accounting. In the European Union (EU), there is pressure to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact criteria. Therefore, like firms, governments might try to make their economic situation seem better. In this paper, we use a Benford test to investigate the quality of macroeconomic data relevant to the deficit criteria reported to Eurostat by the EU member states. We find that the data reported by Greece shows the greatest deviation from Benford's law among all euro states.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | BENFORDS LAW; FRAUD DETECTION; DIGIT PROBLEM; 1ST DIGIT; Benford's law; government statistics; fraud detection; auditing |
| Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 340 Law |
| Divisions: | Law > Öffentliches Recht |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Jun 2020 04:50 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Jun 2020 04:50 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/20509 |
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