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Publication
Transparency, Policy Outcomes, and Incumbent Support
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Government transparency has been discussed both as a way to decrease informational asymmetries between
officeholders and citizens and as part of what makes for procedurally fair governance. These two different
lines of argument generate predictions about how transparency should change voters’ reactions to economic
and policy outcomes. First, under high transparency, voters should respond less positively to fiscal expansions.
Second, they should become more sensitive to incumbents’ ability to deliver outcomes that generate
benefits in the long-run than to current tangible benefits. We test these arguments using municipality level
data in Portugal. Controlling for variables that previous research has shown to drive electoral support for incumbents
in local elections, only in the least transparent municipalities is support positively related with increases
in local current expenditures, budget deficits, and municipal wages. Instead, where transparency is
higher, voters are more likely to reward improvements in the quality of education.
Description
Keywords
Government transparency Local government
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Aguiar-Conraria, L., Magalhães, P. C, Veiga, F. J. (2019). Transparency, Policy Outcomes, and Incumbent Support. Kyklos. First published 13 March, DOI 10.1111/kykl.12203