Transparency and trust in the public sector: Target and benchmarks to ensure macroeconomic stability

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the relationship between a country's macroeconomic stability and the level of transparency and public trust in the financial sector and public authorities. Canonical analysis and structural modeling served as methodological tools of the research. The study examined the data from eight EU countries (Austria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Italy) over the 2011-2021period. Eight indicators of public sector transparency and one indicator of the degree of public trust (Consumer Sentiment Index) were chosen to establish the relationship between the components. The results of structural modeling proved that public trust has a much greater impact on macroeconomic stability than indicators of public sector transparency. A 1-point increase in public trust leads the GDP to increase by 0.018% and the stability of the currency exchange rate – by 0.352%. Meanwhile the same effect from a 1-point increase in the level of public sector transparency amounts to 0.061% and 0.021% increases, respectively.