The Politics of Public Service Reform: Experimental Evidence from Liberia

Wayne Aaron Sandholtz and Wayne Sandholtz
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Wayne Aaron Sandholtz

No 10633, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: This paper provides experimental evidence on the electoral effect of a large education reform in a developing democracy. Despite significantly improving school quality, the policy reduced the incumbent party’s presidential vote share by 3 percentage points (10%). This does not imply that voters fundamentally oppose service improvements: household surveys showed strong support for the policy, and variation in school-pair-level treatment effects shows that the more the policy raised test scores, the more it increased incumbent vote share. Instead, the negative average electoral effect was driven by opposition from teachers. The policy reduced teachers’ job satisfaction, their support for the incumbent government, and their political engagement. The more the policy reduced teacher political engagement, the more it reduced incumbent vote share. Counterfactual simulations suggest that relatively small improvements in effectiveness and/or teacher engagement could have made the policy a net vote winner. This paper empirically demonstrates the importance of political feasibility in the design of public service reforms.

Keywords: electoral returns; policy feedback; public service delivery; policy experimentation; education; political economy; elections; randomized controlled trial; Liberia; information (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D72 H41 I25 O10 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-exp and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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