Work

Fiscal transparency, public service provision, and criminal offense rates

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Based on panel data from 269 prefecture-level cities in China from 2014 to 2023, this paper empirically examines the relationships among fiscal transparency, public service provision, and criminal offense rates. The study finds that higher levels of fiscal transparency are significantly associated with lower criminal offense rates, indicating that information disclosure plays a positive role in reducing opportunities for corruption and strengthening institutional deterrence. Further analysis reveals that improvements in public service provision help decrease crime risk, and that fiscal transparency indirectly affects criminal offense rates by enhancing public service delivery. In addition, the impact of fiscal transparency on criminal offense rates varies significantly across regions with different levels of government efficiency, with the crime-reducing effect of fiscal transparency being more pronounced in areas with lower government efficiency. At the same time, the heterogeneity analysis of urban area size shows significant heterogeneity in the negative impact of fiscal transparency on crime rates between high and low urban area size regions. The innovation of this study lies in exploring the mechanism through which fiscal transparency indirectly affects criminal offense rates via public service provision.

Source: International Review of Financial Analysis

DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104746

Authors: Xin Li, Kaicheng Zou, Tianhu Liao

Institutions: Sichuan University, Guangzhou University, Southwest University of Science and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Local Government Finance and Decentralization

Subfield: Political Science and International Relations

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,770