The Causes of Fiscal Transparency: Evidence from the U.S. States

By James E. Alt, David Dreyer Lassen, Shanna Rose. International Monetary Fund Staff Papers, 2006

186 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We use unique panel data on the evolution of transparent budget procedures in the U.S. states over the past three decades to explore the political and economic determinants of fiscal transparency. Our case studies and quantitative analysis suggest that both politics and fiscal policy outcomes influence the level of transparency. More equal political competition and power sharing are associated with both greater levels of and increases in fiscal transparency during the sample period. Political polarization and past fiscal conditions, in particular state government debt and budget imbalances, also appear to affect the level of transparency. Copyright 2006, International Monetary Fund

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Political Science and International Relations

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Citations in the corpus

Factors determining online sustainability reporting by local governments (2015, background): “However, Alt et al. (2006) found no significant effect of revenue on transparency.”
Determinants of corporate social disclosure in Spanish local governments (2013, background): “As for disclosure practices, politicians may vary the degree of transparency in order to achieve their own goals (Alt et al., 2006).”
The Determinants of Local Government's Financial Transparency (2011, methodology): “Rattsø and Tovmo (2002), Borge (2005) and Hagen and Vabo (2005) also use a Herfindahl index to measure the political fragmentation at municipal level.”
Budget Transparency in Local Governments: An Empirical Analysis (2013, background): “This is the case of the work by Alt and Lassen (2006) focused on the effects of fiscal transparency on the accumulation of public debt in OECD countries.”
Citizens, legislators, and executive disclosure: the political determinants of fiscal transparency (2013, background): “The variables used by Alt et al. (2006) make sense for the US context, which is characterized by two-party competition, but are difficult to translate into multi-party settings, for instance.”