2022/06/01 by Mariana Batista, Virgínia Rocha, Pedro Nascimento · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #E-Government and Public Services #Public Policy and Administration Research #Regulation and Compliance Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1590/0034-761220220069x
crossref issued 2022/06/01 · crossref published 2022/06/01 · crossref published-online 2022/06/01 · openalex publication_date 2022/06/01 · crossref created 2022/07/15 · crossref deposited 2024/05/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract Why do political actors promote public transparency? Studies show that adherence to transparency can be both politically strategic, i.e., to tie the hands of the successor, and a result of observing the adoption of the policy made by other municipalities, i.e., to minimize the cost of information. We test both the political and the informational motivations to explain the adoption of transparency laws with a subnational analysis of the diffusion of LAI in Brazilian municipalities (2011-2019). Results show that both the informational and the political strategy motivations affect the probability of adopting the LAI. Socioeconomic factors are also important explanatory factors. However, an analysis of heterogeneous effects shows that the learning mechanism is relevant for reducing the impact of socioeconomic factors. This means that learning from neighboring municipalities minimizes the cost of information and the reliance on structural factors to promote transparency at the local level.