E-Government Innovation, Financial Disclosure, and Public Sector Accounts: A Global Study of 30 Small Island Countries

Abstract

This study seeks to test and examine the relationships and impacts of e-government development and e-participation on the financial disclosure of public sector accounts in the context of small island countries. To study the relationships and impacts, the authors drew on (1) e-government development index and (2) e-participation index as measures of e-government development and e-participation. They developed a public accounts internet financial disclosure index (PAIFDI) to measure the online financial disclosure of public sector accounts. A total of 30 small island countries were selected for this study. Data were generated from the 2018 United Nations e-government survey and through assessment of the national websites of 30 small island developing countries. The findings from this study also showed that e-government development has a positive and statistically significant impact on PAIFDI, at a 5% level of significance, holding all other variables constant.