In this week’s episode of the podcast, Michael and Ryan Buyco interview Nico Ravanilla from UC San Diego about his Gatty lecture, “Political Cycle in Public Works Procurement in the Philippines.” Using granular data on public works procurement in the Philippines from 2004-2017, Nico provides evidence of electorally driven corruption and inefficiency in the procurement of public works. Nico finds that patterns in procurement explain the persistent poor quality, and repeated allocation of funds for repairs of public works, especially in highly competitive districts.