Motivating Bureaucrats through Social Recognition : Evidence from Simultaneous Field Experiments

Gauri, Varun ; Jamison, Julian C. ; Mazar, Nina ; Ozier, Owen ; Raha, Shomikho ; Saleh, Karima

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: EXTERNAL VALIDATION;    BUREAUCRACY;    SOCIAL RECOGNITION;    BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS;    BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8473
RP-ID  :  WPS8473

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Bureaucratic performance is a crucialdeterminant of economic growth. Little is known about how toimprove it in resource-constrained settings. This studydescribes a field trial of a social recognition interventionto improve record keeping in clinics in two Nigerian states,replicating the intervention -- implemented by a singleorganization -- on bureaucrats performing identical tasks inboth states. Social recognition improved performance in onestate but had no effect in the other, highlighting both thepotential and the limitations of behavioral interventions.Differences in observables did not explain cross-statedifferences in impacts, however, illustrating thelimitations of observable-based approaches to external validity.