The importance of making financial information (FI) available to politicians is well recognized.
However, despite the recent attention by scholars to the use of FI in political contexts and by
politicians, empirical research has failed to produce accurate tools to assess the degree to which
politicians make use of FI. This exploratory study proposes a new tool to analyse levels of FI use—
the FIU Index. The level of use is assessed by the number of times an FI term is mentioned by
politicians. A test case using the new index in Portuguese municipalities illustrates its potential.
