Financial Effects of Fiscal Transparency: A Critique

This paper investigates the effects of budget transparency on fiscal performance. It fits a panel regression model on data from the Open Budget Index through its five rounds (OBI 2006-OBI 2015) and investigates the effect of openness on budget balance, primary balance and government debt across a sample of 57 countries. We seek to validate the proposed positive effect of fiscal transparency on objective performance indicators. Main results show that the link between openness and budget balance is relatively weak, while the effect of OBI on debt is more robust. This effect is also differentiated, with the lowest and highest-income countries benefitting most from openness.