Information, accountability and perceptions of public sector programme success: A conjoint experiment among bureaucrats in Africa

Adam S. Harris, Brigitte Seim and Rachel Sigman

Development Policy Review, 2020, vol. 38, issue 5, 594-612

Abstract: Motivation Whether public sector organizations implement programmes successfully is a key concern of development scholars and practitioners across the world. While many studies purport the existence of a link between social accountability and public sector performance, this relationship has been difficult to study empirically. Purpose This article examines whether bureaucrats expect public sector programmes with information‐sharing mechanisms, including visibility, transparency and collaboration, to be successful in terms of effectiveness and limiting corruption. Approach and Methods The article uses a conjoint survey experiment administered to thousands of bureaucrats across three African countries: Ghana, Malawi and Uganda. By asking bureaucrats—those with insider knowledge of government programme operations—about two hypothetical programmes with randomly assigned characteristics, we examine whether bureaucrats associate opportunities for monitoring by citizens and civil society groups with the success of public sector programmes. Findings Across diverse country and organizational contexts, bureaucrats consistently attribute high probabilities of success to programmes that are visible to the public, transparent in their implementation, and open to collaboration with civil society. Moreover, the inclusion of any one of these information‐sharing mechanisms can independently increase the perceived likelihood of success. The findings hold across institutional contexts and diverse subgroups of bureaucrats surveyed. Policy Implications To promote success in the implementation of public sector development programmes, officials should look for ways to increase the visibility of their programmes, set requirements for frequent public updates on programme progress, and build in opportunities for outside groups to collaborate.

Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12450

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:devpol:v:38:y:2020:i:5:p:594-612

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0950-6764

Access Statistics for this article

Development Policy Review is currently edited by David Booth

More articles in Development Policy Review from Overseas Development Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().