Can Information about Local Government Performance Induce Civic Participation? Evidence from the Philippines

The question of whether people are motivated to engage in civic activities once informed of their local government's performance is relevant to many developing countries that adopted decentralisation. Applying propensity score matching technique on a unique household-level dataset from the Philippines, it is found that the knowledge of an index of local government performance has positive and statistically significant effects on the likelihood of membership in local organisations and participation in local projects. Thus, the results support policies for greater transparency in local governance to deepen citizenship.