Fiscal transparency: cross-country comparisons

Abstract

The evaluation of fiscal transparency impact on budget indicators performance is examined in the article according to the grouping of countries by the following features: budget transparency, income per capita, level of economic development and economic freedom. The main aim of the study is to determine the relationship between fiscal transparency indexes and indicators of countries’ development. As the result of evaluation it was determined that the main indicators of budget execution under the influence of its transparency vary in different groups of countries. In particular, the studies have shown that the value of Open Budget Index causes the reduction of public debt and the increase in the share of public expenditure, but in countries with high and medium level of development the opposite effect of budget transparency on public debt is characteristic, and the positive impact of budget transparency on the share of public expenditure is characteristic only for countries with high economic freedom.