Freedom of Information and the Amount of the Requested Data: An Experimental Study

Transparency is a key feature of good governance, it increases accountability, and provides effective control of institutions. With the worldwide spread of Freedom of Information Acts (FOIA) researchers intensified their focus on how institutions respond to information requests. These analyses are essential also at the local level since centrally adopted policies aiming for higher transparency are not always followed by local agencies. Prior literature identifies a variety of factors that affect responsiveness to information queries such as the profile of the requesters, and the character of the requests. However, the research is underdeveloped in exploring how the amount of requested data impacts the response rate of local institutions. Our paper aims to address this gap. We conducted two field experiments with a 2x2 between-subject design on municipalities in Bulgaria (N=1,038) and Slovakia (N=800). To perform the experiments, we sent information requests to municipalities. Each municipality was randomly assigned to one of four groups, and each group received one version of the information requests. We used two treatments to create four versions of the requests. First, the requests varied in the volume of the data they asked for (low amount v. high amount). Second, the requests differed based on whether they included a reference to the country’s FOIA (no reference to FOIA v. explicit reference to FOIA). Experiments from both countries yielded identical results. We find that the amount of requested data affects the responsiveness of municipalities. Specifically, asking for more information noticeably reduces the response rate of towns. However, we observe that this effect is moderated by the inclusion of a reference to FOIA. For requests seeking a low amount of data, an explicit reference to FOIA only slightly supports the response rate. Conversely, in the case of high-demand requests, incorporating an FOIA reference substantially improves the responsiveness of municipalities. In sum, our research demonstrates the crucial role of the requested data volume when seeking information from public institutions. Furthermore, we highlight that referring to FOIA serves as an effective tool, overcoming the reluctance of local governments to respond to more demanding information requests.