A Logit Model to Assess the Transparency of Italian Public Administrations’ Websites

The reform of Italian public administrations started in 1993 shifted the consolidated paradigm towards a results-oriented management of the res publica. The resulting regulatory framework emphasizes the role of the evaluation process carried out by the designated audit authorities (OIV or NDV); the Legislator, worried of the possible opacity of the process, provides a new information system, principally making accessible the audit related data via the institutional websites of Italian cities. In this context, the Minister of Public Administration promoted the platform called “Bussola della Trasparenza”, which goal is to ensure an easy access to institutional data of the municipalities and to provide a judgement over the available information. However, the results provided by this platform were unreliable. Our study over a sample of 525 municipalities shows severe discrepancies with the Bussola’s evaluation, suggesting a serious lack of transparency. We therefore propose a logit model as an alternative framework to evaluate the probability that a municipal website is compliant with the new regulation using a set of predictors to consider a broader and more complete definition of transparency. This model is thought as a practical tool to correctly evaluate the compliance of municipal websites.