Explaining the freedom of information in local government: What influences information disclosure?

Abstract In response to the growing demand from society to access public information, governments have been forced to be more transparent in the conduct of their activities. Based on the literature of information disclosure, this paper analyses factors that influenced the freedom of information in Spanish municipalities, and which explain the levels of information disclosure. For the purpose of this study, a dynamic panel System General Method of Moments (System-GMM) estimation was used to analyses data from 100 Spanish largest municipalities for the period of 2008-2014. Additionally, the sample was partitioned in two categories according to the province capital or not province capital criteria in order to find if there are interesting differences. The analysis indicates that disclosure of information about municipal management is associated with financial dependence, internet access, unemployment, electoral turnout and political rivalry. Differences found in the two categories of municipalities suggest that there may be institutional characteristics that could influence the dissemination of information. This study is a contribution to the growing body literature of information disclosure in order to understand what explains the variations of information disclosure among the municipalities.