Political Stubbornness and Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia
Online local budget transparency (OLBT) has been recognized as an important feature of good governance. Accordingly, in this paper, OLBT is measured in all 128 cities and a sample of 100 municipalities in Croatia using several key local budget documents published on local government websites. Using...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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Faculty of Economics University of Rijeka
2019-12-01
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| Series: | Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci : časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.efri.uniri.hr/upload/ZBORNIK%202_2019/01-Ott-Mackic-Bronic-2019-2.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818272005480251392 |
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| author | Katarina Ott Velibor Mačkić Mihaela Bronić |
| author_facet | Katarina Ott Velibor Mačkić Mihaela Bronić |
| author_sort | Katarina Ott |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Online local budget transparency (OLBT) has been recognized as an important feature of good governance. Accordingly, in this paper, OLBT is measured in all 128 cities and a sample of 100 municipalities in Croatia using several key local budget documents published on local government websites. Using a fixed effect Poisson panel model covering the 2013-2017 period, it is shown that along with residents’ income and fiscal capacity of local governments, political ideology and political competition determine the level of OLBT. This paper contributes to the growing body of budget transparency literature by establishing the importance of political factors as determinants of OLBT in this former socialist, fiscally centralized EU member state and reveals the curious stubbornness of the citizens who consistently vote for non-transparent politicians. The main finding is that political factors (political ideology and political competition) matters in determining OLBT, resulting in suboptimal equilibrium of local governments with low levels of OLBT. The local incumbent concludes that OLBT is not a high priority and that his/her constituency will not hold it against him/her. In this environment such a conclusion stands owing to the fact that voters who are stubborn in their voting patterns refuse to change the incumbent who created nontransparency. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T21:35:11Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f231080269fa45f19764ffc7523e0458 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1331-8004 1846-7520 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T21:35:11Z |
| publishDate | 2019-12-01 |
| publisher | Faculty of Economics University of Rijeka |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci : časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu |
| spelling | doaj.art-f231080269fa45f19764ffc7523e04582022-12-22T00:11:13ZdeuFaculty of Economics University of RijekaZbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci : časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu1331-80041846-75202019-12-0137255358510.18045/zbefri.2019.2.553Political Stubbornness and Online Local Budget Transparency in CroatiaKatarina Ott0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2242-4181Velibor Mačkić1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3200-8571Mihaela Bronić2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0863-2040public sector economicscompetitiveness analysis, new political economy, political cyclesfiscal decentralization and development, tax system, budget transparencyOnline local budget transparency (OLBT) has been recognized as an important feature of good governance. Accordingly, in this paper, OLBT is measured in all 128 cities and a sample of 100 municipalities in Croatia using several key local budget documents published on local government websites. Using a fixed effect Poisson panel model covering the 2013-2017 period, it is shown that along with residents’ income and fiscal capacity of local governments, political ideology and political competition determine the level of OLBT. This paper contributes to the growing body of budget transparency literature by establishing the importance of political factors as determinants of OLBT in this former socialist, fiscally centralized EU member state and reveals the curious stubbornness of the citizens who consistently vote for non-transparent politicians. The main finding is that political factors (political ideology and political competition) matters in determining OLBT, resulting in suboptimal equilibrium of local governments with low levels of OLBT. The local incumbent concludes that OLBT is not a high priority and that his/her constituency will not hold it against him/her. In this environment such a conclusion stands owing to the fact that voters who are stubborn in their voting patterns refuse to change the incumbent who created nontransparency.https://www.efri.uniri.hr/upload/ZBORNIK%202_2019/01-Ott-Mackic-Bronic-2019-2.pdfonline budget transparencylocal governmentcroatiapolitical economypanel data model |
| spellingShingle | Katarina Ott Velibor Mačkić Mihaela Bronić Political Stubbornness and Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia Zbornik radova Ekonomskog fakulteta u Rijeci : časopis za ekonomsku teoriju i praksu online budget transparency local government croatia political economy panel data model |
| title | Political Stubbornness and Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia |
| title_full | Political Stubbornness and Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia |
| title_fullStr | Political Stubbornness and Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Political Stubbornness and Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia |
| title_short | Political Stubbornness and Online Local Budget Transparency in Croatia |
| title_sort | political stubbornness and online local budget transparency in croatia |
| topic | online budget transparency local government croatia political economy panel data model |
| url | https://www.efri.uniri.hr/upload/ZBORNIK%202_2019/01-Ott-Mackic-Bronic-2019-2.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT katarinaott politicalstubbornnessandonlinelocalbudgettransparencyincroatia AT velibormackic politicalstubbornnessandonlinelocalbudgettransparencyincroatia AT mihaelabronic politicalstubbornnessandonlinelocalbudgettransparencyincroatia |