Transparency and local government corruption: what does lack of transparency hide?

Jiménez González, Juan Luis; Albalate, Daniel

Use this link to cite:

http://hdl.handle.net/2183/23461

Transparency and local government corruption: what does lack of transparency hide?

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EJGE_2018_7_2_1.pdf (172.41 KB)

Identifiers

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2183/23461

Publication date

2018

Authors

Jiménez González, Juan Luis

Albalate, Daniel

Bibliographic citation

Jiménez, J. L., & Albalate, D. (2018). Transparency and local government corruption: what does lack of transparency hide?. European Journal of Government and Economics, 7(2), 106-122. https://doi.org/10.17979/ejge.2018.7.2.4509

Abstract

[Abstract] This paper empirically investigates the causal relationship between local government transparency and political corruption in a sample of Spain's 110 largest municipalities. After implementing a two-stage probit estimation procedure, our evidence indicates that transparency is inversely related to the likelihood of local political corruption. This result supports the hypothesis that a lack of transparency conceals corrupt activities and that an unwillingness to provide information is a good proxy of the likelihood of corruption.