Accounting for Windfalls: Experimental Evidence from Peru

Can we generate positive accountability effects in a context of windfalls? In light of the pervasiveness of non-tax revenues among subnational governments, this research design seeks to build and expand upon recent evidence in the fiscal contract literature. It uses a survey experiment in Peru to test two causal mechanisms that have been proposed as linking taxes and accountability: feelings of ownership over the budget and information about revenue availability. Through a careful selection of the research sites it endeavors to not only estimate the effect of these mechanisms on accountability demands, but also benchmark them against the effect of taxes. Moreover, by allowing for positive and negative (i.e., clientelistic) types of accountability demands it adds necessary nuance to participation measures.