Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP11078
Authors: Imran Rasul; Daniel Rogger
Abstract: We study how the management practices bureaucrats operate under correlate to the quantity of public services delivered, using data from the Nigerian Civil Service. We have hand-coded independent engineering assessments of 4700 project completion rates. We supplement this with a management survey in the bureaucracies responsible for these projects, building on Bloom and Van Reenen [2007]. Management practices matter: increasing bureaucrats' autonomy is positively associated with completion rates, yet practices related to incentives/monitoring of bureaucrats are negatively associated with completion rates. Our evidence provides new insights on the importance of management in public bureaucracies in a developing country setting.
Keywords: bureaucracy; management
JEL Codes: J33; O20
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Increasing bureaucrats' autonomy (D73) | Project completion rates (H43) |
| Practices related to incentives/monitoring (M52) | Project completion rates (H43) |
| Higher project completion rates (H43) | More autonomy granted (H77) |
| Lower project completion rates (H43) | Increase in monitoring (E63) |