Transparency of local government financial statements: Analyzing citizens’ perceptions

Worldwide, open data initiatives aim at making information publicly available and transparent. Increasingly, local governments (LGs) are publishing financial statements in order to inform citizens, their function as both service recipients resource providers, about the LGs’ situation. However, it remains questionable whether LG appropriate mechanisms of public accountability: is debated, on one hand, citizens interested accounting information, other if they able understand presented statements. This study first its kind applying think aloud method analyze citizens’ perceptions a sample 30 German with diverse socio-demographic characteristics. The paper explores general interest ability extract basic from these so that increased transparency can be assumed. explorative reveals although demand find challenging Citizens seem overwhelmed by call for delegation tasks or simplified reporting formats.