FOI laws increase FDI inflows per GDP, but only after they have been in effect for several years, and only where the rule of law is high.
- It should be remembered that implementation should be expected to take time if a new policy requires substantial changes at multiple levels of government, such as the creation of new agencies or new roles within existing agencies (such as information offices or officers), new practices (such as new systems to manage documents), and new types of behaviour (openness as opposed to secrecy).
- FOI laws are not important solely for their much-touted benefits to democracy, accountability, free press and civil society. These laws also play an important role in shaping economic incentives to which investors respond.
- FOI laws can increase transparency in ways that decrease investor uncertainty and solve information asymmetries, the author observes that they can also increase the credibility of policymakers’ commitments, by giving potential sanctioning power to a diffused body of domestic actors.
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