Political Dividends of Digital Participatory Governance: Evidence from Moscow Pothole Management

Nisan Gorgulu, Gulnaz Sharafutdinova and Jevgenijs Steinbuks

No 9445, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: This study takes advantage of a publicly salient policy sphere -- road quality -- in theRussian Federation's capital city to explore the use of digital technologies as means of aggregating information anddemonstrating government capacity and effectiveness. It focuses on the potential linkage between road quality basedon citizens' complaints and electoral outcomes in two rounds of Moscow mayoral elections in 2013 and 2018. Thedata on more than 200,000 online potholes’ complaints were collected and combined with local election data. The causalrelationship between these two processes is established, making use of an arguably exogenous variation in thedifferences across local weather conditions during the heating season that differentially affects pothole creationbut is uncorrelated with electoral outcomes. The results indicate that greater use of digital technologies (measuredby pothole complaints) results in an increased number of votes and a higher margin of victory for the incumbent. Theyhighlight digital technologies' role as a tool to create participatory governance mechanisms and convey to thepublic an image of a transparent, responsive, and capable government.

Keywords: Information Technology; Transport Services; Urban Housing and Land Settlements; Urban Governance and Management; Municipal Management and Reform; Urban Housing; De Facto Governments; E-Government; E-Government; Public Sector Administrative and Civil Service Reform; Economics and Finance of Public Institution Development; Democratic Government; E-Government; Public Sector Administrative & Civil Service Reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-10-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:9445

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