Technological advances are increasingly influencing how the public sector makes decisions according to citizens' needs and the community's problems. The need for a solution that facilitates the fast adaptation of administration to social context and people's feedback becomes mandatory in order...

The present article examines the pioneering case of blockchain adoption in local government by the City of Lugano and discusses how Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) may support institutional innovation beyond pilot experimentation. The Swiss municipality of Lugano has developed an integrated...

Fiscal transparency is a core pillar of open government, yet its implementation at the local level remains uneven. This study investigates how the Open Government Partnership (OGP) contributes to fiscal transparency as a form of public sector innovation through a comparative analysis of local...

Local governments in advanced democracies have increasingly struggled to attract political candidates, weakening electoral competition and accountability at the municipal level. While several factors may contribute to this trend, politicians' salaries represent one of the few policy levers that...

Background: The smart city concept has become a central framework in contemporary urban governance; however, empirical research predominantly focuses on large metropolitan areas, while small municipalities remain comparatively underexplored. This study examines how citizens of Ivanić-Grad...

This study offers a descriptive analysis of complex thinking as a form of cognitive competency among a group of 52 public servants holding local leadership positions in the Philippines. By extending the empirical examination of complex thinking beyond educational contexts and into local public...

The way in which local public administration (LPA) drives innovation, develops sustainable infrastructure, and supports inclusive industrialization, shapes public perceptions of development and institutional legitimacy. This study analyzes how public investment, trust in municipal organizations,...

We study the role of mayoral gender in attracting public funding in Italian municipalities. We exploit a novel administrative dataset containing detailed information on all projects aimed at the digitalisation of local public administrations and funded under Italy's National Recovery and...

We study the role of mayoral gender in attracting public funding in Italian municipalities. We exploit a novel administrative dataset containing detailed information on all projects aimed at the digitalisation of local public administrations and funded under Italy's National Recovery and...

We study whether structured, evidence-based information can shape local policymakers beliefs and stated intentions to adopt violence prevention interventions. Using a randomized experiment embedded in Colombia's national policy planning cycle, we exposed municipal officials to varying types of...

This study advances a quantitative political economy analysis of development banking within federative systems, focusing on Brazil's National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES). Moving beyond traditional fiscal transfer models, we investigate the mechanisms through which federal...

"The book investigates urban development and governance in China and introduces China perspectives to the understanding of governing urban development in the 21st century. Building upon a rich and burgeoning literature on China, the book explains major changes in governance, offers a well...

Purpose - The study aims to provide a clear framework of steps on how to implement the balanced scorecard model at the level of measuring and managing local performance, with a mix between what theoretical approaches show in this matter and examples of applied experiences in different contexts....

We evaluate the impact of a recent reform that sharply increased the salaries of Italian local politicians on electoral competition and the valence attributes of the candidates elected. Exploiting misaligned election dates across Italian cities, we propose a novel methodology, the time-shifted...

Urban centers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and South Asian (SA) regions face challenges like urban sprawl, low-density development, and heavy investment in road infrastructure, worsened by fragmented governance and political instability. This study adopts a qualitative approach,...

This study investigates how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles can be effectively integrated into the Balanced Scorecard (BSc) framework within local government organizations (LGOs) to enhance strategic planning and sustainability performance. Addressing a gap in the...

This study investigates the nexus between transformational leadership (TL), organisational innovation (OI), organisational transparency (OT), and their collective impact on organisational success (LOS) within Thailand's Local Administrative Organisations (LAOs). Utilizing a quantitative research...

In recent years, advanced democracies have witnessed a marked decline in candidates for local government office, undermining electoral competition and accountability and triggering a sheer political recruitment crisis. Although several factors may contribute to this trend — such as generalized...

Section 195(b) of South Africa's Constitution calls for the efficient use of resources in public administration, while the White Paper on Local Government similarly emphasizes the efficient provision of basic services such as refuse collection and water. Despite these policy commitments, South...

The Local Development Councils (LDCs) feature a significant participatory governance function in local policy development, as local government units (LGUs) are mandated to constitute LDCs with members from civil society organizations (CSOs). While the Department of the Interior and Local...

In recent decades, decentralization reforms have surged across the Global South, aiming to bring governance closer to citizens. Despite extensive debate on their effectiveness, systematic methods to assess local government performance remain underexplored, particularly in data-constrained...

This paper examines the fiscal and extra-fiscal effects of decentralizing the collection of Brazil's rural land tax from the federal level to local governments. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we assess the impact of local tax enforcement on revenue, land use, and...