1. Dov Fischer & Anthony Crossman
Is Participatory Budgeting associated with increased budgetary transparency?
Dov Fischer & Anthony Crossman
Department of Accounting
Murray Koppelman School of Business
Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
March 2016

2. Research Design phase Interesting Research Question:
Does participatory budgeting lead to an increase in budgetary transparency?
More realistic research question:
Is Participatory Budgeting associated with increased transparency?

3. Possible approaches to measuring association between PB and budgetary transparency
Survey PB participants on budgetary awareness before and after participation
Compare budgetary awareness of PB participants versus a control group.
What control group?
Individuals who came to PB workshop but ultimately chose not to participate?
Compare budgetary transparency on websites of cities that have PB versus cities that do not.
Citizen’s Budget: A non-technical presentation to enable broad public understanding of a government’s plan for raising revenues and spending public funds in order to achieve policy goals (OpenBudget.gov)

4. The Case of New York City

5. City Council website (in contrast, the home page of NYC
City Council website (in contrast, the home page of NYC.gov offers no information on the budget)

6. Our Research Approach: Compare budgetary transparency on websites of cities that have PB versus cities that do not
Source: Participatory Budgeting Project

7. New York
Source: Participatory Budgeting Project

8. Chicago
Source: Participatory Budgeting Project

9. Source: Participatory Budgeting Project

10. Boston
Source: Participatory Budgeting Project

11. St. Louis
Source: Participatory Budgeting Project

12. Vallejo City, CA
Sources: Participatory Budgeting Project (above); WikiPedia (right)

13. Research Design and Pilot Study
Match the 5 PB cities with similarly-sized cities
Identify measures of budgetary transparency,
particularly web-site transparency
Compare PB cities with matched cities for relative transparency
Problem: Small sample size
Possible solutions:
Wait: PB is fast spreading
Expand sample to non-US cities

14. Literature on PB and Budgetary Transparency
Participatory Budgeting
(not much, particularly in the U.S. context)
Baiocchi and Lerner, The Good Society, 2007
Lerner and Secondo, Journal of Public Deliberation, 2007
Russon Gilman, Journal of Public Deliberation, 2007
Budgetary Transparency
Alt, Dreyer Lassen & Skilling State Politics and Policy Quarterly, 2002
Alt, Dreyer Lassen & Rose IMF Staff Papers, 2006
Benito & Bastida, Public Administration Review 2009

15. Citymayors.com list of 100 largest U.S. cities
Size
Participatory Budgeting Cities
Matched City 1
New York 2
Los Angeles 3
Chicago 4
Houston 14
San Francisco 15
Columbus, OH 21
Boston 22
Seattle 58
St. Louis 59
Riverside, CA
Vallejo City, CA

16. Question 1 Does the word “budget” appear on the city’s website?
Size
Participatory Budgeting Cities
Matched City 1
New York 2
Los Angeles 3
Chicago 4
Houston 14
San Francisco 15
Columbus, OH 21
Boston 22
Seattle 58
St. Louis 59
Riverside, CA

17. It turns out that Seattle does have PB
It turns out that Seattle does have PB! Even though it’s not on the PBP list
Next step: Do a Google search “Participatory Budgeting [city name]” for the largest 60 U.S. cities
This may expand the sample of PB cities

18. Other measures of transparency

20. Los Angeles

21. Open Budget or Open Government
Albuquerque
Louisville
Ann Arbor
Madison -
Arvada
Montgomery County
Asheville
NC OpenBook -
Atlanta
New Orleans
Austin
New York City PB
Baltimore
Open Door Kentucky -
Belleville
Palo Alto
Boston PB
Philadelphia
Boston Enterprise GIS
Portland
Burlington
Providence
Champaign
Raleigh
Chicago PB
Rockford
Cook County -
San Francisco PB
Denver
San Mateo County
Gilpin County -
Santa Cruz
Honolulu
Scottsdale
Houston
Seattle PB
Kansas City
Somerville
King County -
South Bend
Las Vegas
Wake County -
Lexington
Weatherford
Los Angeles Control
Wellington
Of the sample PB cities, only St. Louis is not Open Budget.
Of the control cities, only Los Angeles is Open Budget
Seattle turns out to be PB.
It also turns out that New Orleans has PB
Los Angeles has PB activity on the state level.

22. Open Government – Open Budget

24. Improving the research design on the sample
Obtain a more comprehensive listing of PB cities
Perhaps match based on metropolitan areas.
Open Government may soon have actual transparency ratings for U.S. cities.
It already has ratings on the sovereign level.

25. Extensions and Conclusion
It seems like there are different motivations for cities to adopt PB
Bankruptcy and social unrest
St. Louis and Villejo
(also New Orleans, which was not originally identified as a PB city)
As a way for members of city council to ensure voter loyalty
NYC, Boston, Chicago
It is interesting that NYC Council provides more transparent budget information than the main NYC website.
Cutting edge, liberal, altruistic
Seattle, San Francisco
Different motives may result in different associations with transparency