Talking numbers? Analyzing the presence of financial information in councilor's speech during the budget debate in Flemish municipal councils

This paper provides new empirical evidence about Flemish municipal councilors’ use of financial information in the yearly budget debate. Since councilors generally do not handle information according to ‘standard use models’, we adopt an innovative method of data collection by scrutinizing their speech for the presence of financial information during the budget debate in Flemish municipalities. The incorporation of financial information in councilors’ contributions to the debate is conceptualized as a particular form of observable use of financial information. We quantitatively assess the presence of both budgetary and accrual financial information using a scoring technique taken from the management accounting literature. Additionally, we analyze whether various political and financial circumstances affect politicians’ mentioning of this information in their deliberations. Our results reveal a strong prevalence of budgetary information in councilors’ speech. This is influenced by both political conditions and the financial position of the municipality