Taxpayers want to pay as little in taxes as possible to fund an adequate level of public goods and services in their local government, and so they need to keep their local incumbents accountable. Online local budget transparency (OLBT) facilitates this accountability, as it enables citizens to find information online about their local budgets that is timely, accurate, comprehensive and understandable. The aim of this article is to identify the most important determinants of OLBT for all 556 Croatian cities and municipalities from 2014 to 2017. Using a dynamic spatial lag Durbin model, the analysis explores the direct and indirect effects of potential determinants on OLBT. The main contribution is the pioneering use of a dynamic spatial lag Durbin model for researching local budget transparency determinants in a Central and Eastern European democracy. The results show that neighbours have an influence on OLBT but that direct effects dominate; that is, the major OLBT determinants come from within each city/municipality. Particularly important determinants are residents’ income, the local government’s wealth, the number of public employees in the city/municipality and the population size.

中文翻译：

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基于克罗地亚城市和自治市的空间回归分析讨论在线预算透明度的决定因素：好邻居会让你变得更好吗？

纳税人希望尽可能少缴纳税款，以资助当地政府提供足够水平的公共产品和服务，因此他们需要让当地在职者承担责任。在线地方预算透明度 (OLBT) 促进了这种问责制，因为它使公民能够在线查找有关其地方预算的及时、准确、全面和易于理解的信息。本文的目的是确定 2014 年至 2017 年克罗地亚所有 556 个城市和直辖市的 OLBT 最重要的决定因素。使用动态空间滞后 Durbin 模型，分析探讨了潜在决定因素对 OLBT 的直接和间接影响。主要贡献是开创性地使用动态空间滞后德宾模型来研究中欧和东欧民主国家的地方预算透明度决定因素。结果表明，邻居对 OLBT 有影响，但直接影响占主导地位；也就是说，主要的 OLBT 决定因素来自每个城市/自治市。特别重要的决定因素是居民的收入、当地政府的财富、城市/直辖市的公职人员数量和人口规模。