Persistent disparities in program access jeopardize social equity and erode a key pillar of democratic governance. Scholars have uncovered the causes of these disparities, including administrative burden and front-line discrimination, but less attention has been devoted to identifying tools for reducing disparities. We build on this work by arguing that reducing street-level bureaucrats’ workload may be a key lever for reducing disparities. We also argue that workload reductions will be especially effective at advancing equity when administrative burden is expanded and complexity in client cases could otherwise create room for racial discrimination. We leverage data on all high schools in Oklahoma from 2005-2014 (n=4,155) to estimate the causal effects of a state policy that mandates a counselor-student ratio in a regression discontinuity design. In line with our hypotheses, we find that decreasing workload corresponds to an increase in access for intersectionally minoritized students—low-income Black, Native American, and Hispanic students. Moreover, we find that effects were concentrated in the years after administrative burden was expanded. Together, our findings suggest that reducing workload can alleviate longstanding disparities in program access.
{"title":"Does Reducing Street-level Bureaucrats’ Workload Enhance Equity in Program Access? Evidence from Burdensome College Financial Aid Programs","authors":"E. Bell, Katharine Meyer","doi":"10.1093/jopart/muad018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muad018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Persistent disparities in program access jeopardize social equity and erode a key pillar of democratic governance. Scholars have uncovered the causes of these disparities, including administrative burden and front-line discrimination, but less attention has been devoted to identifying tools for reducing disparities. We build on this work by arguing that reducing street-level bureaucrats’ workload may be a key lever for reducing disparities. We also argue that workload reductions will be especially effective at advancing equity when administrative burden is expanded and complexity in client cases could otherwise create room for racial discrimination. We leverage data on all high schools in Oklahoma from 2005-2014 (n=4,155) to estimate the causal effects of a state policy that mandates a counselor-student ratio in a regression discontinuity design. In line with our hypotheses, we find that decreasing workload corresponds to an increase in access for intersectionally minoritized students—low-income Black, Native American, and Hispanic students. Moreover, we find that effects were concentrated in the years after administrative burden was expanded. Together, our findings suggest that reducing workload can alleviate longstanding disparities in program access.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-08-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48887442","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Adam Wiechman, S. A. Vicario, Elizabeth A. Koebele
In complex, polycentric environmental governance systems, actors may choose to collaborate with one another to reduce their collective vulnerability and enhance system function. However, collaboration can be costly, and little evidence exists for how particular collaborative forums impact the broader governance system in which they are embedded. To address this gap, we investigate the role of intermediate collaborative forums, which support collaboration among a subset of system actors, in polycentric governance systems. Empirically, we analyze the structural and functional role of an intermediate collaborative forum called the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association (AMWUA) within the municipal surface water governance network for the Phoenix Metropolitan Area (PMA) in Arizona, United States. To do this, we draw from 21 interviews with water professionals in the PMA, which we analyze through a combination of network analysis and qualitative coding. We find that AMWUA facilitates strong bonding capacities among members, allowing for streamlined bridging to the rest of the network that enhances information processing and advocacy of member needs. Our findings advance theory on the role of collaboration in polycentric systems and inform the design of collaborative institutions to improve environmental governance.
{"title":"The Role of Intermediate Collaborative Forums in Polycentric Environmental Governance","authors":"Adam Wiechman, S. A. Vicario, Elizabeth A. Koebele","doi":"10.1093/jopart/muad017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muad017","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In complex, polycentric environmental governance systems, actors may choose to collaborate with one another to reduce their collective vulnerability and enhance system function. However, collaboration can be costly, and little evidence exists for how particular collaborative forums impact the broader governance system in which they are embedded. To address this gap, we investigate the role of intermediate collaborative forums, which support collaboration among a subset of system actors, in polycentric governance systems. Empirically, we analyze the structural and functional role of an intermediate collaborative forum called the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association (AMWUA) within the municipal surface water governance network for the Phoenix Metropolitan Area (PMA) in Arizona, United States. To do this, we draw from 21 interviews with water professionals in the PMA, which we analyze through a combination of network analysis and qualitative coding. We find that AMWUA facilitates strong bonding capacities among members, allowing for streamlined bridging to the rest of the network that enhances information processing and advocacy of member needs. Our findings advance theory on the role of collaboration in polycentric systems and inform the design of collaborative institutions to improve environmental governance.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42691498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Volunteer use as an alternative service delivery arrangement entails public organizations directly incorporating volunteers in service production through a quasi-employment relationship. However, research evaluating the contributions of volunteer labor to organizational performance are relatively few. This article fills this gap by drawing from two theoretical insights. First, this study tests a linear model based on the traditional human resource management approach of interchangeability in which volunteers constitute a one-on-one substitute for paid employees. Second, this study draws insight from critical mass theory to explore a nonlinear model based on the assumption that the productivity of one volunteer may not be equal to that of one paid employee due to the systematic limitations of volunteer labor. Analyzing a large-N panel dataset of 2,420 local law enforcement agencies in the United States that utilize sworn volunteers with general arrest powers, the findings indicate that an increase in the number of sworn volunteers has a linear negative effect on clearing violent crimes in sheriffs offices. However, the results also indicate evidence of curvilinear effects on clearing violent crimes in police departments. This article suggests the need to account for the systematic limitations of volunteer labor when measuring performance and to explore multiple indicators. This study contributes to theory building and testing by enabling a two-way understanding of the relationship between volunteer involvement and organizational performance in the public sector.
{"title":"Volunteers in Public Service Production: Modeling the Contributions of Volunteers to Organizational Performance","authors":"Seong-Cheol Kang","doi":"10.1093/jopart/muad016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muad016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Volunteer use as an alternative service delivery arrangement entails public organizations directly incorporating volunteers in service production through a quasi-employment relationship. However, research evaluating the contributions of volunteer labor to organizational performance are relatively few. This article fills this gap by drawing from two theoretical insights. First, this study tests a linear model based on the traditional human resource management approach of interchangeability in which volunteers constitute a one-on-one substitute for paid employees. Second, this study draws insight from critical mass theory to explore a nonlinear model based on the assumption that the productivity of one volunteer may not be equal to that of one paid employee due to the systematic limitations of volunteer labor. Analyzing a large-N panel dataset of 2,420 local law enforcement agencies in the United States that utilize sworn volunteers with general arrest powers, the findings indicate that an increase in the number of sworn volunteers has a linear negative effect on clearing violent crimes in sheriffs offices. However, the results also indicate evidence of curvilinear effects on clearing violent crimes in police departments. This article suggests the need to account for the systematic limitations of volunteer labor when measuring performance and to explore multiple indicators. This study contributes to theory building and testing by enabling a two-way understanding of the relationship between volunteer involvement and organizational performance in the public sector.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45232889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper explores the speed of rulemaking in American state governments. Drawing on a unique data set of over 250,000 individual rules issued by states from 1993 through 2009, we introduce new measures of the speed and breadth of rulemaking in American state bureaucracies, providing a new way of evaluating the incidence of rulemaking delay within and across governments. We focus specifically on how professionalism and oversight powers of state legislative and executive branches affect rulemaking speed and find that states with more professionalized legislatures and governments with extensive legislative/executive oversight powers experience greater delays in rule adoption. These findings provide important new insights into the politics of regulatory delay and suggest disparate ways in which sub-national governments approach regulatory policymaking in a federal system.
{"title":"Rulemaking Speed in the U.S. States","authors":"Graeme T. Boushey, Robert J. McGrath","doi":"10.1093/jopart/muad013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muad013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper explores the speed of rulemaking in American state governments. Drawing on a unique data set of over 250,000 individual rules issued by states from 1993 through 2009, we introduce new measures of the speed and breadth of rulemaking in American state bureaucracies, providing a new way of evaluating the incidence of rulemaking delay within and across governments. We focus specifically on how professionalism and oversight powers of state legislative and executive branches affect rulemaking speed and find that states with more professionalized legislatures and governments with extensive legislative/executive oversight powers experience greater delays in rule adoption. These findings provide important new insights into the politics of regulatory delay and suggest disparate ways in which sub-national governments approach regulatory policymaking in a federal system.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45653394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While prior research has long identified the centrality of critical supply acquisition to the government’s response to a crisis, there is less understanding of how to secure critical supplies that depend on global supply chains. The acquisition of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the immediate aftermath of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak (COVID-19) proved challenging not only due to threats of contractor deception, but also due to disruptions in contractor supply chains. This research analyzes primary interview data with contracting officials involved in purchasing PPE in the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis. The results indicate the ways that contractor relationships were perceived useful in anticipating risks surrounding a contractor’s behavior (behavioral uncertainties), but insufficient in anticipating disruptions that can result from a contractor’s supply chains (environmental uncertainties). Contractor relations were perceived to help in predicting industry disruptions, but such relations were likely to be formed alongside transactional and short-term contract designs – and likely to require comparison with other data sources. The results indicate that improving the reliability of critical supply acquisition for future crises is likely to depend on developing expertise unique to contracting markets, especially as the U.S. government increasingly relies on global supply chains in critical supply acquisition.
{"title":"Responding to Environmental Uncertainties in Critical Supply Acquisition: An Examination of Contracting for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the Aftermath of COVID-19","authors":"Eric J. Boyer","doi":"10.1093/jopart/muad015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muad015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 While prior research has long identified the centrality of critical supply acquisition to the government’s response to a crisis, there is less understanding of how to secure critical supplies that depend on global supply chains. The acquisition of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the immediate aftermath of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak (COVID-19) proved challenging not only due to threats of contractor deception, but also due to disruptions in contractor supply chains. This research analyzes primary interview data with contracting officials involved in purchasing PPE in the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis. The results indicate the ways that contractor relationships were perceived useful in anticipating risks surrounding a contractor’s behavior (behavioral uncertainties), but insufficient in anticipating disruptions that can result from a contractor’s supply chains (environmental uncertainties). Contractor relations were perceived to help in predicting industry disruptions, but such relations were likely to be formed alongside transactional and short-term contract designs – and likely to require comparison with other data sources. The results indicate that improving the reliability of critical supply acquisition for future crises is likely to depend on developing expertise unique to contracting markets, especially as the U.S. government increasingly relies on global supply chains in critical supply acquisition.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48562420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Much of policy-making involves prioritization—deciding not only what to do, but also when—and uncertainty—not knowing exactly how the choices made will affect actual policy outcomes. I present a theory of dynamic prioritization within a hierarchical organization. The model illustrates how notions such as an agency’s performance, mission, and critical tasks are linked with details such as institutional structure and the preferences of both front-line bureaucrats and their overseers. The theory highlights some reasons why even sincere, representative policy-making decisions might appear irrational, inconsistent, or “captured” to outside observers. This is in contrast to classical “spatial models” of policy that abstract from the more quotidian details of how policy is actually made as opposed to simply being “chosen.” The theory also generates traditional comparative static-style predictions about the features of the policy-making tasks, the preferences of bureaucrats and political overseers, and agency structure that affect the substance and quality of policy-making. Finally, the theory offers a general explanation for why real-world agencies employ widely varying processes to organize and implement policy-making: optimal policy-making is—in a precise sense—“sufficiently complicated” to render a succinct and robust summary of optimal management impossible.
{"title":"Working Towards Policy: A Theory of Organizational Implementation and Management","authors":"John W. Patty","doi":"10.1093/jopart/muad014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muad014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Much of policy-making involves prioritization—deciding not only what to do, but also when—and uncertainty—not knowing exactly how the choices made will affect actual policy outcomes. I present a theory of dynamic prioritization within a hierarchical organization. The model illustrates how notions such as an agency’s performance, mission, and critical tasks are linked with details such as institutional structure and the preferences of both front-line bureaucrats and their overseers. The theory highlights some reasons why even sincere, representative policy-making decisions might appear irrational, inconsistent, or “captured” to outside observers. This is in contrast to classical “spatial models” of policy that abstract from the more quotidian details of how policy is actually made as opposed to simply being “chosen.” The theory also generates traditional comparative static-style predictions about the features of the policy-making tasks, the preferences of bureaucrats and political overseers, and agency structure that affect the substance and quality of policy-making. Finally, the theory offers a general explanation for why real-world agencies employ widely varying processes to organize and implement policy-making: optimal policy-making is—in a precise sense—“sufficiently complicated” to render a succinct and robust summary of optimal management impossible.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41422138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
From at least 2006, Western North Dakota experienced an oil boom that resulted in a dramatic increase in economic activity, and tax revenue. In response to this boom, North Dakota, through a constitutional ballot measure, established the Legacy Fund. This fund reserved 30% of monthly oil tax revenue collected by the state for future use. On July 1, 2017, the State Legislature, per the constitutional provisions creating the Legacy fund, became able to spend the interest (as well as some of the principal, with numerous limitations) from the fund. How to allocate these funds has become a state-wide public finance policy and political issue. Governor Burgum and others have proposed a variety of ways to use the funds on public projects and tax relief. Decisions about the long-term purpose of the fund and how best to use its earnings have increased in urgency with both the availability of the funds and the volatility of oil and other tax revenues. Deciding how to best use the Legacy Fund is both a fiscal and political question. Legislators must sort out how the interest earnings will be used, who should benefit, or if the fund should be used at all. I explore how these decisions are made, the possible implications of those decisions, the proposals that have been put forward, and propose a framework for how these decisions might be made.
{"title":"Building a Legacy? North Dakota’s Oil and Gas Legacy Fund an Exercise in Public Policy and Political Action","authors":"Ryan M. Yonk","doi":"10.5539/par.v12n2p22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5539/par.v12n2p22","url":null,"abstract":"From at least 2006, Western North Dakota experienced an oil boom that resulted in a dramatic increase in economic activity, and tax revenue. In response to this boom, North Dakota, through a constitutional ballot measure, established the Legacy Fund. This fund reserved 30% of monthly oil tax revenue collected by the state for future use. On July 1, 2017, the State Legislature, per the constitutional provisions creating the Legacy fund, became able to spend the interest (as well as some of the principal, with numerous limitations) from the fund. \u0000 \u0000How to allocate these funds has become a state-wide public finance policy and political issue. Governor Burgum and others have proposed a variety of ways to use the funds on public projects and tax relief. Decisions about the long-term purpose of the fund and how best to use its earnings have increased in urgency with both the availability of the funds and the volatility of oil and other tax revenues. \u0000 \u0000Deciding how to best use the Legacy Fund is both a fiscal and political question. Legislators must sort out how the interest earnings will be used, who should benefit, or if the fund should be used at all. I explore how these decisions are made, the possible implications of those decisions, the proposals that have been put forward, and propose a framework for how these decisions might be made.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74736585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article explores how deliberation affects distributive justice for minority view participants in policy decisions made through collaborative governance. It also examines whether the quality of deliberation (i.e., willingness to accept opposing viewpoints) and quantity of deliberation (i.e., length of discussion) can be an effective tool for minority view participants to overcome power imbalances in such collective decision-making processes. I use Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), a computer simulation experiment method, to examine interactions among participants in a collaborative governance arrangement. I develop a series of theoretical propositions based on the simulation results, which are robust to various changes in the parameters and assumptions of the model. First, both the quality and quantity of deliberation may enhance the decision acceptability of participants with minority views. Second, the quality of deliberation may be more effective at empowering underrepresented minority view participants than the quantity of deliberation. Third, the quantity of deliberation may better promote minority views than the quality of deliberation when minority view participants are overrepresented. These findings indicate that interpersonal justice in collaborative processes may enhance distributive justice for minority viewpoints in collaborative outputs, even when procedural justice in the design of collaboration is weakened by an underrepresentation of minority view participants. I conclude with suggestions for future research that can further improve the external validity of the theoretical propositions.
{"title":"Distributive Justice in Collaborative Outputs: Empowering Minority Viewpoints through Deliberation","authors":"Jiho Kim","doi":"10.1093/jopart/muad012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muad012","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article explores how deliberation affects distributive justice for minority view participants in policy decisions made through collaborative governance. It also examines whether the quality of deliberation (i.e., willingness to accept opposing viewpoints) and quantity of deliberation (i.e., length of discussion) can be an effective tool for minority view participants to overcome power imbalances in such collective decision-making processes. I use Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), a computer simulation experiment method, to examine interactions among participants in a collaborative governance arrangement. I develop a series of theoretical propositions based on the simulation results, which are robust to various changes in the parameters and assumptions of the model. First, both the quality and quantity of deliberation may enhance the decision acceptability of participants with minority views. Second, the quality of deliberation may be more effective at empowering underrepresented minority view participants than the quantity of deliberation. Third, the quantity of deliberation may better promote minority views than the quality of deliberation when minority view participants are overrepresented. These findings indicate that interpersonal justice in collaborative processes may enhance distributive justice for minority viewpoints in collaborative outputs, even when procedural justice in the design of collaboration is weakened by an underrepresentation of minority view participants. I conclude with suggestions for future research that can further improve the external validity of the theoretical propositions.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48711183","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. C. Andersen, Morten Bruntse, O. James, S. Jilke
Understanding the differences between working in the public and private sectors is core to public management research. We assess the implications of a theory of public ownership, testing an expectation that work is of higher quality when performed under public ownership status compared to a private company. We conducted two, pre-registered, field experiments with a routine data processing task and workers recruited through an online labor market. Workers were randomly allocated information about the ownership status of a nursing home as either a public organization or a private company. Work quality was measured as errors workers made in data entry and correcting pre-existing errors in work materials provided to them. The first experiment showed that fewer workers in the public, compared to the private, nursing home tended to make any data entry errors but that they did not correct more existing errors. Exploratory analyses showed a greater effect for those aware of the organization’s ownership status. To test this apparent sector attention effect, we conducted a second experiment with a 2-by-2 factorial design randomly allocating workers to a treatment making salient the public or private sector status of the organization, in addition to the initial public or private sector treatment. The results confirmed the effect of public sector status and sector attention in combination; workers who were assigned to a public sector organization rather than a private company and who were made aware of the respective sector status were more likely to perform their work tasks without any errors. We discuss the limits of the findings and their implications including that public organizations could boost the quality of work done by making their sector status more explicit to workers.
{"title":"Does Work Quality Differ between the Public and Private Sectors? Evidence from Two Online Field Experiments","authors":"S. C. Andersen, Morten Bruntse, O. James, S. Jilke","doi":"10.1093/jopart/muad011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muad011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Understanding the differences between working in the public and private sectors is core to public management research. We assess the implications of a theory of public ownership, testing an expectation that work is of higher quality when performed under public ownership status compared to a private company. We conducted two, pre-registered, field experiments with a routine data processing task and workers recruited through an online labor market. Workers were randomly allocated information about the ownership status of a nursing home as either a public organization or a private company. Work quality was measured as errors workers made in data entry and correcting pre-existing errors in work materials provided to them. The first experiment showed that fewer workers in the public, compared to the private, nursing home tended to make any data entry errors but that they did not correct more existing errors. Exploratory analyses showed a greater effect for those aware of the organization’s ownership status. To test this apparent sector attention effect, we conducted a second experiment with a 2-by-2 factorial design randomly allocating workers to a treatment making salient the public or private sector status of the organization, in addition to the initial public or private sector treatment. The results confirmed the effect of public sector status and sector attention in combination; workers who were assigned to a public sector organization rather than a private company and who were made aware of the respective sector status were more likely to perform their work tasks without any errors. We discuss the limits of the findings and their implications including that public organizations could boost the quality of work done by making their sector status more explicit to workers.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46209232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Purpose: To highlight the relationship between hunger in children and struggles with reading and to propose a library-based social program that is directly incorporated within the local libraries’ already established summer reading program to address it. All local libraries throughout the country have an established summer reading program to provide learning stimulus for students when school closed for summer recess. Design/methodology/approach: The method is to analyze the problem using the lens of an economic theory and he research method is the literature review. The theoretical approach or underpinning is that Arthur Laffer’s, trickle-down economic theory has failed our children who go to bed hungry. Findings: School-aged children who are food insecure suffer academically and the problem is worse during the summer months because there is no access to school meals. The local public library is in a unique position to provide social services in the form of a library-based meal program that is incorporated with the summer reading program. Research limitations/implications: Due to the nature of the study, since there were no participants, the findings are only generalizable to a sample of libraries. Future studies could explore topics related to the actual implementation of a library-based meal program that is tracked over a period of three years.
{"title":"Check It Out! A Proposed Public Library-Based Meal Program to Combat Literacy Struggles in Children","authors":"R. Pistone","doi":"10.5539/par.v12n2p17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5539/par.v12n2p17","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: To highlight the relationship between hunger in children and struggles with reading and to propose a library-based social program that is directly incorporated within the local libraries’ already established summer reading program to address it. All local libraries throughout the country have an established summer reading program to provide learning stimulus for students when school closed for summer recess. Design/methodology/approach: The method is to analyze the problem using the lens of an economic theory and he research method is the literature review. The theoretical approach or underpinning is that Arthur Laffer’s, trickle-down economic theory has failed our children who go to bed hungry. Findings: School-aged children who are food insecure suffer academically and the problem is worse during the summer months because there is no access to school meals. The local public library is in a unique position to provide social services in the form of a library-based meal program that is incorporated with the summer reading program. Research limitations/implications: Due to the nature of the study, since there were no participants, the findings are only generalizable to a sample of libraries. Future studies could explore topics related to the actual implementation of a library-based meal program that is tracked over a period of three years.","PeriodicalId":48366,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2023-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73640441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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