Facebook posts that include pictures result in an average of 180% more interactions compared to simple text posts. Including photos in LinkedIn increases the probability of having comments by 98%. The same thing happens on Twitter. How are these statistics relevant to transparency policies? Very simple. If a country wants to provide open access to information about public … [Read more...] about Transparency and Technology: How Citizens can Track Public Money
corruption
Corruption and growth, revisited
Some years ago, there was a tsunami in the economics literature on the relationship between economic growth and corruption. When it became clear that correlation is not causation, and that perception is not necessarily reality, the wave dwindled, although a corruption-index industry did thrive, (for a while). A recent paper retakes this issue from a more rigorous … [Read more...] about Corruption and growth, revisited
Corruption: peeking below the tip of the iceberg
By: Isabel Contreras and Juanita Riaño (IADB´s Office of Institutional Integrity) Every year on December 9 the International Anti-Corruption Day is celebrated. This year’s message reminds us that we all have a responsibility in the fight against corruption, as it hinders achieving our goals of sustainable development, and reducing poverty and inequality in Latin-America … [Read more...] about Corruption: peeking below the tip of the iceberg
Sunlight disinfects, but beware of the shade!
By Leopoldo Fergusson* and Juan Fernando Vargas** Having a free and active media is recognized as essential for political accountability. By providing information, mass media can help voters make better decisions and hold politicians accountable. Often, journalists also help uncover corruption scandals and undue influence of special interests groups. A famous example … [Read more...] about Sunlight disinfects, but beware of the shade!
Accountability and corruption
For a while I have been meaning to write a post on the impact of political institutions on corruption based on an interesting paper on municipal elections in Brazil. The paper shows that the reelection specter helps in disciplining corrupt politicians Mayors with reelection incentives misappropriate 27 percent fewer resources than mayors without reelection incentives. These … [Read more...] about Accountability and corruption