Policy actors around the world perceive transparency as a means to achieve good governance. Research often focuses on the determinants of fiscal and economic transparency and gives less attention to administrative transparency. This study examines whether multiple types of institutional factors influence administrative transparency in the context of the hiring of college and university presidents in U.S. postsecondary education. Across 54 contracts obtained between institutions of higher education and third-party search firms, no contract explicitly referred to the term transparency, but contracts varied in attention given to issues of confidentiality. Using data for 157 presidential searches between 2010 and 2018, we find that few structural components predict indicators of transparency, though the presence of state sunshine laws and whether a governing board oversees multiple institutions can influence specific portions of the executive search process.

世界各地的政策参与者将透明度视为实现善治的一种手段。研究通常侧重于财政和经济透明度的决定因素，而较少关注行政透明度。本研究考察了在美国高等教育中聘用学院和大学校长的背景下，多种类型的制度因素是否会影响行政透明度。在高等教育机构与第三方搜索公司之间获得的 54 份合同中，没有合同明确提及透明度一词，但合同对保密问题的关注程度各不相同。使用 2010 年至 2018 年间 157 次总统搜索的数据，我们发现很少有结构成分可以预测透明度指标，