Does the freedom of information law increase transparency at the local level? Evidence from a field experiment

Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F18%3A00100945" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/18:00100945 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X18300273" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0740624X18300273</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2018.05.003" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.giq.2018.05.003</a>

Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Does the freedom of information law increase transparency at the local level? Evidence from a field experiment
Original language description
The paper studies how Freedom of Information (FOI) laws work and assist citizens in their demand for information at the local level. To examine this, we ran a field experiment and sent emails to all 2,928 municipalities in Slovakia and asked them to provide us data from local election, inaccessible in any other way. Results show that mentioning FOI law in the request increased the response rate, while a moral appeal had no effect at all. The found effect is, however, moderated by population size. While in less populated municipalities the FOI requests led to substantially higher responsiveness of public bodies, the form of the request becomes less relevant with increasing population. Higher compliance was also found for municipalities led by independents. On the other hand, areas with a predominance of an ethnic minority had lesser responsiveness, possibly due to a language barrier.
Czech name
—
Czech description
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Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
50601 - Political science

Project
<a href="/en/project/GA18-15700S" target="_blank" >GA18-15700S: Biography and the Performance of Politicians in the Czech Republic and Slovakia</a><br>
Continuities
P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year
2018
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

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