Budget transparency in local governments

Abstract

In recent times, interest in financial transparency has gained strength but previous studies have usually been focused on the national government setting aside local governments. To carry out this work a sample of the 110 largest municipalities in Spain in 2014 has taken into account. This information was obtained from the Transparency International Spain. A series of determinants have been established: political, economic, demographic and fiscal in order to see how they affect the determination of local authorities’ transparency. The results point out that the population affects the transparency positively while provincial capital gets it diminished. By analysing how those determinants affect in the six areas of transparency established by IT-Spain the study has been expanded. Finally, note that the Spanish municipalities have considerably gained on information disclosure due to the transparency index publication, and this allows citizens and local authorities to enjoy a greater relationship of trust.