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Does Data Disclosure Improve Local Government Performance? Evidence from Italian Municipalities

Author

Listed:
  • Lockwood, Ben

    (University of Warwick)

  • Porcelli, Francesco

    (University of Bari and CAGE)

  • Redoano, Michela

    (University of Warwick)

  • Schiavone, Antonio

    (University of Bologna)

Abstract
We exploit the introduction of an open data online platform - part of a transparency program initiated by the Italian Government in late 2014 - as a natural experiment to analyse the effect of data disclosure on mayors’ expenditure and public good provision. First, we analyse the effect of the program by comparing municipalities on the border between ordinary and special regions, exploiting the fact that the latter regions did not participate in the program. We find that mayors in ordinary regions immediately change their behaviour after data disclosure by improving the disclosed indicators, and that the reaction depends also on their initial relative performance, a yardstick competition effect. Second, we investigate the effect of mayors’ attention to data disclosure within treated regions by tracking their daily accesses to the platform, which we instrument with the daily publication of newspaper articles mentioning the program. We find that mayors react to data disclosure by decreasing spending via a reduction of service provision, resulting in an aggregate decrease in efficiency. Overall, mayors seem to target variables that are disclosed on the website at the expense of variables that are less salient.

Suggested Citation

  • Lockwood, Ben & Porcelli, Francesco & Redoano, Michela & Schiavone, Antonio, 2022. "Does Data Disclosure Improve Local Government Performance? Evidence from Italian Municipalities," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1434, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wrk:warwec:1434
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    Cited by:

    1. Federico Boffa & Vincenzo Mollisi & Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, 2023. "Do incompetent politicians breed populist voters? Evidence from Italian municipalities," Economics Working Papers 1861, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Boffa Federico & Mollisi Vincenzo & Ponzetto A. M. Giacomo, 2024. "Do Incompetent Politicians Breed Populist Voters? Evidence from Italian Municipalities," Working papers 087, Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    open data ; local government ; media coverage ; OpenCivitas JEL Codes: H72 ; H79;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H72 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Budget and Expenditures
    • H79 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Other

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