- **Control and Intervening Variables:** Based on the literature, and as highlighted in the conceptual framework above, it is evident that a number of control/intermediating variables should be included, which can affect the relationships between the key independent and dependent variables. While many additional factors can and should be considered, the statistical analysis will only operationalize the most obvious enabling factors, including the following:

- **Publicity Condition:** This index relies on the IIAG sub-index for “Rights” which averages scores for freedom of expression, media freedom, media impartiality, censorship, freedom of association and assembly, trade unions, civil liberties, human rights, and the like.

- **Political Agency Condition:** This index relies on the IIAG sub-index for “Participation” which averages scores for political participation, freedom of political parties, CSO/NGO participation, free and fair elections, election monitoring, legitimacy of the political process, and the like.

- **Public Management Condition:** This index relies on the IIAG sub-index for “Public Management” which averages scores for public administration capacity, statistical capacity, budget management, fiscal policy, revenue collection, HR management, and the like.

- **Client Power Condition:** This research proposes a customized index that relies on a variety of sub-indicators related to CSO/NGO freedom, IT literacy, mobile phone and internet penetration, media censorship, freedom of association and assembly, and access to information.

- **Log Per Capita GDP:** In order to remove the income effects between countries, as well as to control for inflationary effects, this research uses log per capita GDP harmonized to 2011.

# **V. STATISTICAL FINDINGS**

Using the multi-year data set created, each premise in the conceptual framework was tested in order to estimate associations between the principle independent variable (OGD) and the respective dependent variables (accountability and service delivery). In addition to these aggregates, key relationships were tested with respect to variables contained in the sub-indices of accountability, service provision, and service delivery outcomes, which may be of interest on their own—outside the hypothesized relationships noted in the conceptual framework. Finally, the four enabling “conditions,”—publicity, political agency, public management, and client power—were tested in order to provide important clues regarding the necessary and sufficient conditions in each relationship.

#  **_Premise 1: Higher levels of OGD make government more accountable._**

To test the first premise, the aggregate accountability index is regressed on the overall average score of OGD implementation (across all dimensions of OGD). First, a positive and statistically significant correlation is found between the indexes: for a 1-point increase in OGD, accountability is expected to increase by 0.375 points in the sample of countries surveyed. Second, when controlling for the Political Agency condition index and the Publicity condition index, the association between OGD and accountability remain significant in the case of the Political Agency condition and marginally significant<sup>123</sup> in the case of the Publicity condition, suggesting that all three variables are meaningful both independently and when taken together. As expected, higher levels of per capita GDP are associated with higher levels of accountability.

> 123 Although the OGD coefficient in column 3 is not significant at the 90% confidence interval, the coefficient value was not drastically affected and remains approximately twice the standard error, suggesting that this relationship remains at least marginally significant. Moreover, it is likely that some of the significance was lost given that the broader OGD enabling environment is captured by the sub-indices used to operationalize the Publicity condition (see annex 2 for details).

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