“You need to have this information!”: Using videos to increase demand for accountability on public revenue management

Abstract

How can citizens be motivated to demand accountability in the management of public revenues? We carry out a video survey experiment among 2300 Ghanaian respondents to study the impact of information provision and encouragement messages by a politician and a civil society leader on attitudes and demand for accountability in the management of petroleum revenues. We find that providing information significantly increases knowledge about current revenue management, satisfaction with the way revenues are handled and spent, and the intention to demand more accountability. The encouragement messages have an additional effect: they increase the sense that citizens can influence how petroleum revenues are used and the intention to contact media to ensure better accountability. However, a follow-up survey two years later shows that these impacts do not last. The experiment suggests that providing relevant information affects attitudes and intended behavior in the short term and that role models can give valuable encouragement for behavioral change, but this is not enough to influence engagement with revenue management in the longer term.