"Government Transparency in Latin America"

Gregory Michenor

Associate Professor of Government at the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration

May 4, 2022 12:00PM Hybrid: Millikan room E53-482, or email pmmc@mit.edu for zoom information

WHO: A Canadian and naturalized Brazilian, Gregory Michener is Associate Professor of Government at the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro (FGV-EBAPE). Michener is an expert on freedom of information and transparency, and his research and writing focus on the politics, policy, measurement and evaluation of transparency and open data, as well as the operation of anti-corruption and accountability policies – focused principally on Latin America. At the FGV, he leads the Public Transparency Program (PTP-FGV) and a regional research project, the Transparency Evaluation Network. He is currently working on a book on transparency and freedom of information in Latin America, which he is completing on sabbatical leave as a visiting scholar at MIT’s Department of Political Science. His wife, Carolina Fonseca, an architect, construction manager, and now entrepreneur, is currently undertaking the mid-career, one-year Sloan Fellows MBA at MIT. Michener will be returning to Rio de Janeiro in August 2022.

WHAT: “Transparency Laws at Two Decades in Latin America and Ten Years in Brazil: When Does it Make a Difference?”
The presentation reviews select material for a book project on government transparency and freedom of information laws in Latin America, addressing questions related to the state of transparency in Latin America, the impact of new transparency laws, and the determinants of weak and robust transparency regimes.