New paper on local government transparency and the web

A new paper entitled “Explaining the transparency of local government websites through a political market framework” by Antonio F. Tavares and Nuno Ferreira da Cruz investigates what drives the differences in local government levels of transparency in Portugal. The main focus is to understand whether transparency is driven by leaders and local government or by community factors.  This is tested by using the results of the Municipal Transparency Index, which is based on the information disclosed in official local government websites.