What is it: A 59pg Working Paper from NBER (inc. 6pgs of references and 29 pgs of tables and annexes). Presents the results of two field experiments, plus background and lots of methods. Includes a highly readable 4 page intro that summarizes everything. Produced by four solid academics doing rigorous work, with no institutional biases that I can see. Should you care: Maybe. It’s a cool and smart...
Evidence on the drivers of participation, legitimacy in government, social accountability impacts and more in this month of links and findings civic tech research.
Findings Qualitative content analysis of 122 US cities suggests three main pathways through which police forces adopt and innovate transparency. Short version: it’s complicated, but policy and mandates matter a lot. New research from NewsWhip suggests that political news is the trick for news outlets to increase their Facebook engagement, but that partisan sites are outperforming mainstream...