Especially during election years, the connection between text and figures in annual reports weakens. In municipalities where things are not going well, the text is still disproportionately positive, says accounting researcher Emmeli Runesson.
The researchers analyzed 4,000 annual reports from 289 Swedish municipalities between 2010 and 2023. The fact that the tone becomes more positive in connection with elections is particularly noticeable in municipalities that are doing worse economically - there is the greatest difference between how reality is described and what the figures look like.
It's important to actually look at the numbers, says Runesson.
The study has been published in the International Review of Administrative Sciences.
