Can Scorecards Improve Municipal Government Performance? A Field Experiment

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte Lierl
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Government Performance

scholarly journals The Challenges of Using Citizen Reporting to Improve Public Services: A Field Experiment on Solid Waste Services in Uganda

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark T Buntaine ◽  
Patrick Hunnicutt ◽  
Polycarp Komakech
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Solid Waste ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Search Costs ◽  
Large Scale Field ◽  
The Government

Abstract Governments around the world are investing in technologies that allow citizens to participate in the coproduction of public services by providing monitoring and feedback, but there is little evidence about how these initiatives affect the quality of public services. We implemented a large-scale field experiment that involved organizing 50 citizen reporters in each of 100 neighborhoods across Kampala, Uganda, to provide weekly reports to the municipal government about the delivery of solid waste services via an SMS-messaging platform, resulting in 23,856 reports during the 9-month study period. Citizen reporting did not reduce informal waste accumulation as targeted, which would indicate improvements to formal services. Using our observations as participants in the development and deployment of the reporting platform and interviews with staff at the government agency receiving the citizen reports, we show how the public generated inconsistent information that did not fit existing decision-making processes. We generalize lessons from this field experiment by explaining how coproduction involving information sharing through information and communication technologies is likely to affect public services based on the alignment of citizen-produced data with the information problems managers face; the search costs of detecting public services failures; the quality of citizen-produced data; and the operating costs of citizen-reporting platforms.

Municipal Government Performance Appraisal System Practices: Is the Whole Less Than the Sum of its Parts?

1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary E. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Performance Appraisal ◽  
National Survey ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
User Acceptance ◽  
System Structure ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Appraisal System ◽  
Performance Appraisal System ◽  
Appraisal Systems

This article presents the results of a national survey of municipal government performance appraisal system practices based upon the responses of 240 personnel professionals. The survey focuses on appraisal system structure, the link between performance and personnel decision making, perceived user acceptance, and observations on the effectiveness of the appraisal system. The results indicate that most performance appraisal systems are designed in accordance with the literature. However, the administration of these systems is more problematic. Most systems are perceived to be somewhat effective in terms of the process of appraisal and the affects on motivation and productivity.

scholarly journals Do political donors have greater access to government officials? Evidence from a FOIA field experiment with US municipalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas R. Jenkins ◽  
Michelangelo Landgrave ◽  
Gabriel E. Martinez
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Wait Time ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Preferential Treatment ◽  
Freedom Of Information Act ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
State Laws ◽  
The Us

Whether political donors have greater access to government officials is a perennial question in politics. Using a freedom of information act (FOIA) compliance field experiment with US municipalities in California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, we fail to find evidence that political donors have greater access to government officials compared to engaged citizens. We contribute to the lobbying literature by testing for preferential treatment towards political donors in municipal government. Consistent with the extant FOIA literature, we do find that a formal FOIA request increases compliance rates and decreases wait time before an initial reply. This is an important contribution because, although many polities have FOIA laws, it cannot be taken for granted that FOIA laws will lead to transparency in practice. Testing the effectiveness of FOIA laws in the US is particularly important because state laws vary substantially.

scholarly journals Combining bottom-up monitoring and top-down accountability: A field experiment on managing corruption in Uganda

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 205316802093435
Author(s):  
Mark T. Buntaine ◽  
Brigham Daniels
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiment ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Public Projects ◽  
Citizen Monitoring ◽  
High Level

Citizen monitoring of government performance is often ineffective at improving performance, perhaps because information from monitoring does not make it far enough up in the chain of bureaucracy where the authority to punish public mismanagement rests. In a field experiment, we test whether delivering regular, officially certified reports derived from citizen monitoring and describing specific problems with the implementation of public projects to high-level bureaucrats charged with overseeing the projects improved their delivery. We do not find evidence that this treatment improved the delivery of public projects. Follow-up interviews revealed that the targeted officials seemed to avoid knowledge of the monitoring, perhaps to avoid taking on the responsibility that would come from such knowledge. However, the treatment also provided information to citizens about what they should expect from local governments, which instigated several direct complaints that the targeted officials did not ignore. Based on this alternative channel, which we did not anticipate, we conclude that citizen monitoring must be deployed in ways that make knowledge of problems undeniable for authorities who have a responsibility to address them.

Rethinking the Meaning of Citizenship in Post-PRI Mexico: Can the State Change Its Image?

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Katsuo A. Nishikawa
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Baja California ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
The State ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
State Change ◽  
Mixed Effect ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Positive Effect

This study considers the effect that gestures of goodwill from state officials have on political attitudes in post-PRI Mexico. A field experiment was conducted in the state of Baja California in which randomly selected individuals in the treatment group received a short letter from the state designed to improve residents' evaluation of government efforts to rehabilitate their neighborhoods. Overall, this study finds that a gesture of goodwill has a mixed effect on political attitudes relevant to democracy. While the treatment has a negative effect on levels of efficacy and evaluations of government performance, it also has a positive effect on willingness to become more involved in politics.

scholarly journals "Good Politicians'': Experimental Evidence on Motivations for Political Candidacy and Government Performance

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saad Gulzar ◽  
Muhammad Yasir Khan
Keyword(s):  
Social Influence ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Government Performance ◽  
Social Motives ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Public Setting ◽  
Citizen Preferences ◽  
Policy Alignment ◽  
Information Salience

How can we motivate `good' politicians -- those that will carry out policy that is responsive to citizens' preferences -- to enter politics? In a field experiment in Pakistan, we vary how political office is portrayed to ordinary citizens. We find that emphasizing pro-social motives for holding political office instead of personal returns -- such as the ability to help others versus enhancing one's own respect and status -- raises the likelihood that individuals run for office and that voters elect them. It also better aligns subsequent policies with citizens' preferences. The candidacy decisions are explained by social influence, and not information salience -- we find that social versus personal messaging matters only when randomly delivered in a public setting but not in private. Results also show that changes in political supply, not citizen preferences or behavior, explain policy alignment. Taken together, the results demonstrate that non-financial motivations for political entry shape how politicians perform in office.

Urban Government Performance in the Eyes of Chinese Urban Residents

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-322
Author(s):  
Yang Zhong ◽  
Yongguo Chen ◽  
Fei Feng ◽  
Kuiming Wang
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Municipal Government ◽  
Subjective Evaluation ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Urban China ◽  
City Government ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Government Performance

Urban China always plays important political role in contemporary Chinese history. Urban residents, especially in provincial capital cities, are better educated and live in political, economic and social centers in China. Their support is indispensable for the current government in China. Utilizing a large-scale survey data this study explores sources of subjective evaluation of local municipal government policy performance among Chinese urban residents in ten large Chinese cities. Descriptively, this study finds moderate satisfaction with city government performance among Chinese urbanites, which seems to lend support to Chinese government’s performance-based political legitimacy and explains relative political stability in China. Analytically, it is found that, while perceived public participation in municipal policy-making process, perceived government transparency, and personal life satisfaction increase Chinese urban residents’ positive evaluation of government performance, perceived official corruption, democratic orientation and level of political interest lead to negative evaluation of government performance among Chinese urbanites.

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