Government transparency and expenditure in the rent-seeking industry: the case of Japan for 1998-2004

Yamamura, Eiji and Kondoh, Haruo (2011): Government transparency and expenditure in the rent-seeking industry: the case of Japan for 1998-2004.

Abstract

Since the end of the 1990s, local governments in Japan have enacted Information Disclosure Ordinances, which require the disclosure of official government information. This paper uses Japanese prefecture-level data for the period 1998?2004 to examine how this enactment affected the rate of government construction expenditure. The Dynamic Panel model is used to control for unobserved prefecture-specific effects and endogenous bias. The major finding is that disclosure of government information reduces the rate of government construction expenditure. This implies that information disclosure reduces losses from rent-seeking activity, which is consistent with public choice theory.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Information disclosure; Special interest group; Construction expenditure; Rent seeking
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D73 - Bureaucracy ; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations ; Corruption; H - Public Economics > H7 - State and Local Government ; Intergovernmental Relations > H79 - Other; D - Microeconomics > D7 - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making > D78 - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation

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