Government Oversight and Inter-Institutional Legibility: Evidence from Colombia

This article examines how oversight incentives shape the quality of administrative data produced by decentralized government entities. Conceptualizing the problem as one of inter-institutional legibility rooted in principal-agent dynamics, the authors experimentally study Colombia’s National Transparency Index in partnership with a national watchdog agency. Increasing the salience of oversight alters reported scores and may modestly increase reporting rates. Comparing self-reports to independent audits, the study finds that selection, distortion, and noise in reports undermine the central government’s ability to accurately observe decentralized entities. The findings highlight fundamental challenges in administrative data collection and its use for governance and accountability.