Abstract

POLO-OTERO, José. Analysis of fiscal transparency determinants for catalan municipalities. rev. econ. Caribe [online]. 2011, n.8, pp.133-166. ISSN 2011-2106.

The quality of public institutions is an essential issue for the proper functioning of the accountability process. In this sense, fiscal transparency, in particular, the availability of complete budget information by the electorate is a key aspect. It is therefore essential to identify and to understand the determinants of fiscal transparency. With this aim, we create a measure of fiscal transparency from the annual reports of the Audit Office of Catalonia for the period 1997-2004 and for 680 municipalities. The main results indicate that the electoral competition positively affects the probability to be transparent, while the propensity to be transparent decreases with the size of the municipality and with the public debt.

Keywords : Fiscal transparency; electoral competition; accountability.

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