Factors influencing fiscal transparency in local governments: A meta-analysis study (2005-2023

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to conduct a literature review on the factors influencing fiscal transparency in local governments and to determine the magnitudes of the effects of the findings on countries. The study utilized the meta-analysis method, a quantitative research approach. To this end, data were gathered from Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus, Dergipark, and Yöktez databases. All relevant studies published between 2005 and 2023 were comprehensively examined. Initially, 6281 records were identified from the databases. Duplicate entries were removed and works deemed unsuitable based on predefined exclusion criteria were excluded, resulting in 46 studies deemed relevant to the study's objectives. These studies constituted the sample for meta-analysis. Included studies were evaluated based on their title, abstract, and content. The "Compressive Meta Analysis (CMA)" licensed software was used for data analysis. After data entry, the heterogeneity of the articles was determined. In cases where the heterogeneity test yielded p<0.05, a random-effects model was employed, whereas a fixed-effects model was used when p>0.05. The study weights, effect sizes, 95% confidence intervals, and overall effect sizes of all included articles were calculated. A statistical significance threshold of p<0.05 was adopted for evaluating the overall effect. The literature review reveals that factors influencing fiscal transparency in local governments have been predominantly studied in Indonesia and Spain. Through this review, factors such as age, political ideology, income level, voter turnout in local elections, population size, debt, internal auditing, political competition, unemployment, gender, public expenditures, internet usage, and education level have been identified as influential in local government financial transparency. However, the impact of these factors varies across countries due to political, geographical, cultural, or socio-demographic differences.