Sunshine Works : Comment on "The Adverse Effects of Sunshine: A Field Experiment on Legislative Transparency in an Authoritarian Assembly"
Transparency -- sunshine -- is often touted as a core element of the governance agenda, and one that is most important in environments with low transparency to begin with. In a provocative paper published in the American Political Science Review, E...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, Dc
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/09/18259607/sunshine-works-comment-adverse-effects-sunshine-field-experiment-legislative-transparency-authoritarian-assembly http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15831 |
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okr-10986-158312021-04-23T14:03:27Z Sunshine Works : Comment on "The Adverse Effects of Sunshine: A Field Experiment on Legislative Transparency in an Authoritarian Assembly" Anderson, James H. ACCESS TO INFORMATION ADVERSE EFFECT ADVERSE EFFECTS ARTICLE CODES CODING DECISION MAKING DESCRIPTION DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT POLICY DIMINISHING RETURNS DOMAIN ECONOMICS RESEARCH EQUATIONS LOGIC MEDIA NEGATIVE EFFECTS POLITICAL ECONOMY POSITIVE EFFECTS PROBABILITY PROGRAMMING PUBLISHING SITE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TRANSPARENCY TREATMENT VIS WEB WEB PAGES WEBSITES Transparency -- sunshine -- is often touted as a core element of the governance agenda, and one that is most important in environments with low transparency to begin with. In a provocative paper published in the American Political Science Review, Edmund Malesky, Paul Schuler, and Anh Tran present the results of a creative experiment in which they provided an additional spotlight on the activities of a random sample of delegates to Vietnam's National Assembly. They report that the effect of sunshine was negative, that delegates subject to this treatment curtailed their speech, and that those who spoke most critically were punished through the subsequent election and promotion processes. The present paper argues that Malesky, Schuler, and Tran's results, if interpreted correctly, actually predict a net positive effect of transparency. The differences in interpretation stem primarily from three sources: the interpretation of regression results for models with interaction terms, the interpretation of the variable for Internet penetration, and significant pre-treatment differences between treated and control delegates. For the context in which more than 80 percent of delegates operate, Malesky, Schuler, and Tran's results predict a positive but insignificant effect of transparency. In addition, Internet penetration, itself a measure of access to information, is positively associated with critical speech. The paper draws lessons for the design and interpretation of randomized experiments with interaction effects. 2013-09-25T21:08:56Z 2013-09-25T21:08:56Z 2013-09 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/09/18259607/sunshine-works-comment-adverse-effects-sunshine-field-experiment-legislative-transparency-authoritarian-assembly http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15831 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6602 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, Dc Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research East Asia and Pacific Vietnam |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
ACCESS TO INFORMATION ADVERSE EFFECT ADVERSE EFFECTS ARTICLE CODES CODING DECISION MAKING DESCRIPTION DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT POLICY DIMINISHING RETURNS DOMAIN ECONOMICS RESEARCH EQUATIONS LOGIC MEDIA NEGATIVE EFFECTS POLITICAL ECONOMY POSITIVE EFFECTS PROBABILITY PROGRAMMING PUBLISHING SITE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TRANSPARENCY TREATMENT VIS WEB WEB PAGES WEBSITES |
| spellingShingle |
ACCESS TO INFORMATION ADVERSE EFFECT ADVERSE EFFECTS ARTICLE CODES CODING DECISION MAKING DESCRIPTION DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DEVELOPMENT POLICY DIMINISHING RETURNS DOMAIN ECONOMICS RESEARCH EQUATIONS LOGIC MEDIA NEGATIVE EFFECTS POLITICAL ECONOMY POSITIVE EFFECTS PROBABILITY PROGRAMMING PUBLISHING SITE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TRANSPARENCY TREATMENT VIS WEB WEB PAGES WEBSITES Anderson, James H. Sunshine Works : Comment on "The Adverse Effects of Sunshine: A Field Experiment on Legislative Transparency in an Authoritarian Assembly" |
| geographic_facet |
East Asia and Pacific Vietnam |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6602 |
| description |
Transparency -- sunshine -- is often
touted as a core element of the governance agenda, and one
that is most important in environments with low transparency
to begin with. In a provocative paper published in the
American Political Science Review, Edmund Malesky, Paul
Schuler, and Anh Tran present the results of a creative
experiment in which they provided an additional spotlight on
the activities of a random sample of delegates to
Vietnam's National Assembly. They report that the
effect of sunshine was negative, that delegates subject to
this treatment curtailed their speech, and that those who
spoke most critically were punished through the subsequent
election and promotion processes. The present paper argues
that Malesky, Schuler, and Tran's results, if
interpreted correctly, actually predict a net positive
effect of transparency. The differences in interpretation
stem primarily from three sources: the interpretation of
regression results for models with interaction terms, the
interpretation of the variable for Internet penetration, and
significant pre-treatment differences between treated and
control delegates. For the context in which more than 80
percent of delegates operate, Malesky, Schuler, and
Tran's results predict a positive but insignificant
effect of transparency. In addition, Internet penetration,
itself a measure of access to information, is positively
associated with critical speech. The paper draws lessons for
the design and interpretation of randomized experiments with
interaction effects. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
Anderson, James H. |
| author_facet |
Anderson, James H. |
| author_sort |
Anderson, James H. |
| title |
Sunshine Works : Comment on "The Adverse Effects of Sunshine: A Field Experiment on Legislative Transparency in an Authoritarian Assembly" |
| title_short |
Sunshine Works : Comment on "The Adverse Effects of Sunshine: A Field Experiment on Legislative Transparency in an Authoritarian Assembly" |
| title_full |
Sunshine Works : Comment on "The Adverse Effects of Sunshine: A Field Experiment on Legislative Transparency in an Authoritarian Assembly" |
| title_fullStr |
Sunshine Works : Comment on "The Adverse Effects of Sunshine: A Field Experiment on Legislative Transparency in an Authoritarian Assembly" |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Sunshine Works : Comment on "The Adverse Effects of Sunshine: A Field Experiment on Legislative Transparency in an Authoritarian Assembly" |
| title_sort |
sunshine works : comment on "the adverse effects of sunshine: a field experiment on legislative transparency in an authoritarian assembly" |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, Dc |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/09/18259607/sunshine-works-comment-adverse-effects-sunshine-field-experiment-legislative-transparency-authoritarian-assembly http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15831 |
| _version_ |
1764432099397337088 |