Purpose: – Cases of corruption, embezzlement, theft and fraud, abuse of discretion, favoritism, nepotism, clientelism, and abuse of power in governments have led to a growing demand from society to access public information. In response to this demand, governments have been forced to be more transparent in the conduct of their activities. The information transparency index (TI) may be conditioned by economic and political characteristics of local governments affecting the information provided. What factors influenced the index of municipal transparency? Literature about transparency is largely based on the explanations of the agency theory and the legitimacy theory. Based on the postulates of both theories, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, study the index transparency in Spanish municipalities, and, second, determine the main features that are affecting the index of transparency.Design/methodology/approach: – Data were collected from Transparency International Spain ranking and from official sources. Univariate and multivariate analysis are performed for the treatment of data.Findings: – The results shows that political factors like electoral turnout, political ideology, and political competition have a significant effect on the index of transparency. Gender has no significant effect on the index of transparency.Originality/value: – This study is a contribution to the growing body literature of transparency in order to understand what explains the variations of the TI among municipalities.

The global financial crisis has had an impact on Local Government forcing it to be more transparent in management of public resources. This article examines theoretically and empirically the determinants of the levels of transparency in Local Governments based on the agency and legitimacy theories. For the purpose of this study, the analysis is based on the Spanish municipalities over a period of 4 years, between 2008 and 2012. Running a random effect panel data model, our results showed that transparency is associated with economic and political factors. Unemployment rate, gender, electoral turnout, and political strength have a significant effect on the level of transparency. For other variables like investment and fiscal pressure, we did not find significant evidence of their effect on the level of transparency. We conclude that the factors that best explain the variation in the level of transparency in the period of crisis are associated with political factors.

The influence of women in organizational transparency is an understudied vein of representative bureaucracy. Literature claims that the increase of women in formal political representation opened the opportunity to bring to public organizations gender diversity, experiences, and values different from those of men. It highlights the beneficial leadership styles and the legitimacy of public bureaucracies. Since gender equality in Spanish local government has increased in recent years, it was the trigger and the aim for this study: to understand the influence of women’s political representation on the level of Spanish municipalities’ transparency. The analysis draws on panel data econometric techniques. The results reinforce the discussion that the representation of women in local political life will increase information transparency and reduce information asymmetry in municipalities.