Transparency and its drivers. A study of the Colombian experience (2012-2016)

Abstract

The research aim is to analyze the drivers of transparency levels in Colombian municipalities from the perspective of citizens (agency theory) and local governments (legitimacy theory). We used the Panel Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) and a system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator in a dataset of 1,101 Colombian municipalities for five years (2012-2016). Our results show that fiscal autonomy, education, gross domestic product per capita, population size, and political participation are positively associated with public information disclosure in Colombia. Through this research, we contribute to the transparency literature in subnational governments in developing countries by examining determinants related to “citizens’ monitoring abilities” and “pressures for legitimacy” in Colombia.