Lael R Keiser
Biographic Data
| ID | 1200050 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lael R Keiser |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lael R |
| FAMILY NAME | Keiser |
| SIGNATURE | KEISER L R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Missouri |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5605-9018 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 959 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Compliance with Public Health Orders
Governments rely on citizen compliance to implement policies. Yet, in the current climate where citizens express low levels of trust in government, gaining compliance can prove challenging. Scholarship suggests other factors that might promote compliance even in the absence of trust. We examine two: expertise and descriptive representation across race, gender, and partisanship. We experimentally activate general (dis)trust in government and use a…
Race, representation, and policy attitudes in U.S. public schools
Numerous institutions, such as the police, public schools, legislatures, and the courts face criticism for a lack of diversity and representation. According to various political theorists, the lack of representation of marginalized groups in public institutions worsens citizen attitudes. In response, some advocate for increasing passive representation within public institutions. However, different schools of thought exist about whether increasing…
The effect of human versus automated interaction on willingness to participate in government programs
Increased reliance on automated systems in government raises important questions about the impact of these systems on program participation. We look at the relationship between an automated application process and program participation through a representation lens. From a representative bureaucracy perspective, we examine whether gender representation increases participation intentions compared with interacting with an automated system. We also …
Administrative burden, social construction, and public support for government programs
Administrative burden imposes costs on citizens as they interact with government. A high level of administrative burden in programs is linked to negative outcomes for those engaging with the policy, such as reduced take-up. However, despite the negative effects, the mass public is often supportive of greater administrative burden for government programs, and research suggests that high levels of burden can increase favorability toward government …
Representative Bureaucracy and Attitudes Toward Automated Decision Making
The theory of representative bureaucracy posits that citizens will view policy and service delivery more favorably if public servants share their background characteristics. However, automation is changing public service delivery, limiting human involvement in the process. We examine attitudes toward automated decision making through the lens of representative bureaucracy, generating expectations about how a lack of passive representation will af…
The Importance of Oversight and Agency Capacity in Enhancing Performance in Public Service Delivery
Government agencies often encounter problems in service delivery when implementing public programs. This undermines effectiveness and raise questions about accountability. A central component of responsiveness and performance management is that agencies correct course when problems are identified. However, public agencies have an uneven record in responding to problems. In this article, we investigate whether, and to what extent, capacity both wi…
Does Administrative Burden Influence Public Support for Government Programs? Evidence from a Survey Experiment
Research indicates that administrative burden influences the behaviors and views of clients and potential clients of government programs. However, administrative burden may also shape mass attitudes toward government programs. Taking a behavioral public administration approach, the authors consider whether and how exposure to information about administrative burden embedded within eligibility‐based programs influences citizen favorability toward …
The power of comparisons
While previous research has explored how performance data can influence organizations and considered the factors that shape public managers' use of performance data, we know less about the way in which individual bureaucrats respond to performance information. Considerable research illustrates the power of peer information in a variety of contexts, including energy use, voting, and charitable giving. We suggest that public employees may adjust th…
State Governments as Entrepreneurs in Securing Federal Benefits for Their Citizens
Journal Article State Governments as Entrepreneurs in Securing Federal Benefits for Their Citizens Get access Susan M. Miller, Susan M. Miller **Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina; [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Lael R. Keiser Lael R. Keiser †University of Missouri; [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scho…
Does My Boss's Gender Matter? Explaining Job Satisfaction and Employee Turnover in the Public Sector
Substantial literatures exist examining public personnel turnover and the role of gender in public management. We bring these two strands of research together to test hypotheses concerning the impact of manager gender on the job satisfaction and turnover of public sector workers. In particular, we test whether manager gender influences satisfaction and turnover per se versus the competing claim that gender congruence between managers and employee…
A supervisor like me
Studies of race representation in public organizations illustrate the importance of bureaucrat race in determining client‐level outcomes. Building “upward” from this research, this study examines how supervisor race impacts outcomes for street‐level bureaucrats using data from a nationally representative sample of public schools. Employing multiple estimation methods, we find that, consistent with the predictions of representation theory, teacher…
Understanding Street‐Level Bureaucrats' Decision Making
Personal interactions between clients and street‐level bureaucrats are significant in explaining why street‐level bureaucrats behave as they do. Not all bureaucracies that apply program rules to individuals, however, engage face‐to‐face with their clientele. As more intake procedures are automated, such “one‐on‐one” encounters decrease. The author generates and tests hypotheses about frontline bureaucratic decision making in the Social Security D…
The Impact of Organized Interests on Eligibility Determination
The bureaucracy has a profound impact on the direction of policy when it determines eligibility for a variety of government programs. Given the significance of eligibility determination for policy and the fact that street-level bureaucrats have great latitude when interpreting eligibility standards, organized interests have an incentive to try to influence the application of eligibility rules. Despite this, few researchers have explored the impac…
The Political Roots of Disability Claims
Who gets what from government is partly determined by who applies for government programs. Despite the importance of the claiming process, political scientists have said little about the factors that influence citizen demands on government programs. We explore the hypothesis that state environments systematically shape aggregate rates of welfare demand making by testing a model of welfare claiming in the Social Security Disability Insurance and t…
Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform
This paper explores the impact of the race of individual clients and of the local racial context on the implementation of sanctions for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in a Midwestern state.We find that although nonwhites are sanctioned at lower rates than whites overall, nonwhites are sanctioned more compared to whites in each local area.This paradox occurs because nonwhites tend to live in areas with lower sanction …
The Politics of Child Support in America
The Politics of Child Support in America. By Jocelyn Elise Crowley. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 217p. $65.00 cloth, $23.00 paper. Jocelyn Crowley argues that child support policy is an example of innovation through entrepreneurial activity over time. Relying on secondary and original sources, she identifies four different sets of entrepreneurs—social workers, conservatives, women legislators/women's groups, and fathers' rights gro…
Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform
This article explores the impact of the race of individual clients and of the local racial context on the implementation of sanctions for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in a Midwestern state. We find that although nonwhites are sanctioned at lower rates than whites overall, nonwhites are sanctioned more compared to whites in each local area. This paradox occurs because nonwhites tend to live in areas with lower sanct…
Lipstick and Logarithms
According to the theory of representative bureaucracy, passive representation among public employees will lead to active representation in bureaucratic outputs. Existing research demonstrates that the link between passive and active representation exists for race but not for sex. Past research on this topic has not, however, taken into account the contextual environment that affects whether sex will translate into gender and lead to active repres…
Street-level Bureaucrats, Administrative Power and the Manipulation of Federal Social Security Disability Programs
The implementation of federal programs provides an opportunity for state officials to impose their own interests on the policy process. The federal government delegates administrative power to the states to implement federal programs. Because elected state officials serve as one of the principals to street-level bureaucrats, these officials should be able to influence these street-level agents to implement policy to further state needs. However, …
State Bureaucratic Discretion and the Administration of Social Welfare Programs
The impact of the bureaucracy on policy programs through the use of discretion has been both applauded and bemoaned by scholars. By examining variation in the implementation of the Social Security Disability program in the fifty states, this article explores the impact of state level environmental characteristics on the use of discretion. Specifically this article tests whether street-level bureaucracies respond to local economic, political, and …
With Good Cause
The Influence of Women's Political Power on Bureaucratic Output
Who gets what, when and how is affected by the power of different groups in society to affect the political process. Many feminists see increasing women's political representation, via elected office or interest-group involvement, as a necessary condition for improving the status of women. Many studies have examined whether the numerical representation of women translates into legislation or legislative behaviour that seeks to improve the status …
Public Administration as a Science of the Artificial
Public administration, in the words of Herbert Simon (1969), is a science of the artificial. Unlike natural sciences, it is concerned not so much with how things are as how things might be. Simon's position is not so different from Max Weber's (1946) emphasis on the ideal type, in that both are seeking to illustrate or obtain some optimum level of performance. Consistent with these values, many believe that the study of public administration shou…
Policy Design, Bureaucratic Incentives, and Public Management
Recently, scholars have focused on policy design flaws as the cause of policy failure rather than on the failure of bureaucrats to follow the dictates of elected officials. The policy design literature suggests that policy coherence and context, the nature of target populations, and the tractability of the policy problem predict a policy's successful enforcement. Alternate hypotheses argue that the local-level implementation environment and the r…
Lipstick and Logarithms
According to the theory of representative bureaucracy, passive representation among public employees will lead to active representation in bureaucratic outputs. Existing research demonstrates that the link between passive and active representation exists for race but not for sex. Past research on this topic has not, however, taken into account the contextual environment that affects whether sex will translate into gender and lead to active repres…
Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform
This article explores the impact of the race of individual clients and of the local racial context on the implementation of sanctions for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in a Midwestern state. We find that although nonwhites are sanctioned at lower rates than whites overall, nonwhites are sanctioned more compared to whites in each local area. This paradox occurs because nonwhites tend to live in areas with lower sanct…
With Good Cause
State Bureaucratic Discretion and the Administration of Social Welfare Programs
The impact of the bureaucracy on policy programs through the use of discretion has been both applauded and bemoaned by scholars. By examining variation in the implementation of the Social Security Disability program in the fifty states, this article explores the impact of state level environmental characteristics on the use of discretion. Specifically this article tests whether street-level bureaucracies respond to local economic, political, and …
Does My Boss's Gender Matter? Explaining Job Satisfaction and Employee Turnover in the Public Sector
Substantial literatures exist examining public personnel turnover and the role of gender in public management. We bring these two strands of research together to test hypotheses concerning the impact of manager gender on the job satisfaction and turnover of public sector workers. In particular, we test whether manager gender influences satisfaction and turnover per se versus the competing claim that gender congruence between managers and employee…
A supervisor like me
Studies of race representation in public organizations illustrate the importance of bureaucrat race in determining client‐level outcomes. Building “upward” from this research, this study examines how supervisor race impacts outcomes for street‐level bureaucrats using data from a nationally representative sample of public schools. Employing multiple estimation methods, we find that, consistent with the predictions of representation theory, teacher…
Representative Bureaucracy and Attitudes Toward Automated Decision Making
The theory of representative bureaucracy posits that citizens will view policy and service delivery more favorably if public servants share their background characteristics. However, automation is changing public service delivery, limiting human involvement in the process. We examine attitudes toward automated decision making through the lens of representative bureaucracy, generating expectations about how a lack of passive representation will af…
The Political Roots of Disability Claims
Who gets what from government is partly determined by who applies for government programs. Despite the importance of the claiming process, political scientists have said little about the factors that influence citizen demands on government programs. We explore the hypothesis that state environments systematically shape aggregate rates of welfare demand making by testing a model of welfare claiming in the Social Security Disability Insurance and t…
Policy Design, Bureaucratic Incentives, and Public Management
Recently, scholars have focused on policy design flaws as the cause of policy failure rather than on the failure of bureaucrats to follow the dictates of elected officials. The policy design literature suggests that policy coherence and context, the nature of target populations, and the tractability of the policy problem predict a policy's successful enforcement. Alternate hypotheses argue that the local-level implementation environment and the r…
Street-level Bureaucrats, Administrative Power and the Manipulation of Federal Social Security Disability Programs
The implementation of federal programs provides an opportunity for state officials to impose their own interests on the policy process. The federal government delegates administrative power to the states to implement federal programs. Because elected state officials serve as one of the principals to street-level bureaucrats, these officials should be able to influence these street-level agents to implement policy to further state needs. However, …
The Importance of Oversight and Agency Capacity in Enhancing Performance in Public Service Delivery
Government agencies often encounter problems in service delivery when implementing public programs. This undermines effectiveness and raise questions about accountability. A central component of responsiveness and performance management is that agencies correct course when problems are identified. However, public agencies have an uneven record in responding to problems. In this article, we investigate whether, and to what extent, capacity both wi…
The effect of human versus automated interaction on willingness to participate in government programs
Increased reliance on automated systems in government raises important questions about the impact of these systems on program participation. We look at the relationship between an automated application process and program participation through a representation lens. From a representative bureaucracy perspective, we examine whether gender representation increases participation intentions compared with interacting with an automated system. We also …
The Impact of Organized Interests on Eligibility Determination
The bureaucracy has a profound impact on the direction of policy when it determines eligibility for a variety of government programs. Given the significance of eligibility determination for policy and the fact that street-level bureaucrats have great latitude when interpreting eligibility standards, organized interests have an incentive to try to influence the application of eligibility rules. Despite this, few researchers have explored the impac…
The Influence of Women's Political Power on Bureaucratic Output
Who gets what, when and how is affected by the power of different groups in society to affect the political process. Many feminists see increasing women's political representation, via elected office or interest-group involvement, as a necessary condition for improving the status of women. Many studies have examined whether the numerical representation of women translates into legislation or legislative behaviour that seeks to improve the status …
State Governments as Entrepreneurs in Securing Federal Benefits for Their Citizens
Journal Article State Governments as Entrepreneurs in Securing Federal Benefits for Their Citizens Get access Susan M. Miller, Susan M. Miller **Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina; [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Lael R. Keiser Lael R. Keiser †University of Missouri; [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scho…
Compliance with Public Health Orders
Governments rely on citizen compliance to implement policies. Yet, in the current climate where citizens express low levels of trust in government, gaining compliance can prove challenging. Scholarship suggests other factors that might promote compliance even in the absence of trust. We examine two: expertise and descriptive representation across race, gender, and partisanship. We experimentally activate general (dis)trust in government and use a…
The power of comparisons
While previous research has explored how performance data can influence organizations and considered the factors that shape public managers' use of performance data, we know less about the way in which individual bureaucrats respond to performance information. Considerable research illustrates the power of peer information in a variety of contexts, including energy use, voting, and charitable giving. We suggest that public employees may adjust th…
The Politics of Child Support in America
The Politics of Child Support in America. By Jocelyn Elise Crowley. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 217p. $65.00 cloth, $23.00 paper. Jocelyn Crowley argues that child support policy is an example of innovation through entrepreneurial activity over time. Relying on secondary and original sources, she identifies four different sets of entrepreneurs—social workers, conservatives, women legislators/women's groups, and fathers' rights gro…
Public Administration as a Science of the Artificial
Public administration, in the words of Herbert Simon (1969), is a science of the artificial. Unlike natural sciences, it is concerned not so much with how things are as how things might be. Simon's position is not so different from Max Weber's (1946) emphasis on the ideal type, in that both are seeking to illustrate or obtain some optimum level of performance. Consistent with these values, many believe that the study of public administration shou…
Policy Design, Bureaucratic Incentives, and Public Management
Recently, scholars have focused on policy design flaws as the cause of policy failure rather than on the failure of bureaucrats to follow the dictates of elected officials. The policy design literature suggests that policy coherence and context, the nature of target populations, and the tractability of the policy problem predict a policy's successful enforcement. Alternate hypotheses argue that the local-level implementation environment and the r…
The Influence of Women's Political Power on Bureaucratic Output
Who gets what, when and how is affected by the power of different groups in society to affect the political process. Many feminists see increasing women's political representation, via elected office or interest-group involvement, as a necessary condition for improving the status of women. Many studies have examined whether the numerical representation of women translates into legislation or legislative behaviour that seeks to improve the status …
With Good Cause
State Bureaucratic Discretion and the Administration of Social Welfare Programs
The impact of the bureaucracy on policy programs through the use of discretion has been both applauded and bemoaned by scholars. By examining variation in the implementation of the Social Security Disability program in the fifty states, this article explores the impact of state level environmental characteristics on the use of discretion. Specifically this article tests whether street-level bureaucracies respond to local economic, political, and …
Street-level Bureaucrats, Administrative Power and the Manipulation of Federal Social Security Disability Programs
The implementation of federal programs provides an opportunity for state officials to impose their own interests on the policy process. The federal government delegates administrative power to the states to implement federal programs. Because elected state officials serve as one of the principals to street-level bureaucrats, these officials should be able to influence these street-level agents to implement policy to further state needs. However, …
Lipstick and Logarithms
According to the theory of representative bureaucracy, passive representation among public employees will lead to active representation in bureaucratic outputs. Existing research demonstrates that the link between passive and active representation exists for race but not for sex. Past research on this topic has not, however, taken into account the contextual environment that affects whether sex will translate into gender and lead to active repres…
Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform
This paper explores the impact of the race of individual clients and of the local racial context on the implementation of sanctions for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in a Midwestern state.We find that although nonwhites are sanctioned at lower rates than whites overall, nonwhites are sanctioned more compared to whites in each local area.This paradox occurs because nonwhites tend to live in areas with lower sanction …
The Politics of Child Support in America
The Politics of Child Support in America. By Jocelyn Elise Crowley. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 217p. $65.00 cloth, $23.00 paper. Jocelyn Crowley argues that child support policy is an example of innovation through entrepreneurial activity over time. Relying on secondary and original sources, she identifies four different sets of entrepreneurs—social workers, conservatives, women legislators/women's groups, and fathers' rights gro…
Race, Bureaucratic Discretion, and the Implementation of Welfare Reform
This article explores the impact of the race of individual clients and of the local racial context on the implementation of sanctions for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in a Midwestern state. We find that although nonwhites are sanctioned at lower rates than whites overall, nonwhites are sanctioned more compared to whites in each local area. This paradox occurs because nonwhites tend to live in areas with lower sanct…
The Political Roots of Disability Claims
Who gets what from government is partly determined by who applies for government programs. Despite the importance of the claiming process, political scientists have said little about the factors that influence citizen demands on government programs. We explore the hypothesis that state environments systematically shape aggregate rates of welfare demand making by testing a model of welfare claiming in the Social Security Disability Insurance and t…
Understanding Street‐Level Bureaucrats' Decision Making
Personal interactions between clients and street‐level bureaucrats are significant in explaining why street‐level bureaucrats behave as they do. Not all bureaucracies that apply program rules to individuals, however, engage face‐to‐face with their clientele. As more intake procedures are automated, such “one‐on‐one” encounters decrease. The author generates and tests hypotheses about frontline bureaucratic decision making in the Social Security D…
The Impact of Organized Interests on Eligibility Determination
The bureaucracy has a profound impact on the direction of policy when it determines eligibility for a variety of government programs. Given the significance of eligibility determination for policy and the fact that street-level bureaucrats have great latitude when interpreting eligibility standards, organized interests have an incentive to try to influence the application of eligibility rules. Despite this, few researchers have explored the impac…
A supervisor like me
Studies of race representation in public organizations illustrate the importance of bureaucrat race in determining client‐level outcomes. Building “upward” from this research, this study examines how supervisor race impacts outcomes for street‐level bureaucrats using data from a nationally representative sample of public schools. Employing multiple estimation methods, we find that, consistent with the predictions of representation theory, teacher…
Does My Boss's Gender Matter? Explaining Job Satisfaction and Employee Turnover in the Public Sector
Substantial literatures exist examining public personnel turnover and the role of gender in public management. We bring these two strands of research together to test hypotheses concerning the impact of manager gender on the job satisfaction and turnover of public sector workers. In particular, we test whether manager gender influences satisfaction and turnover per se versus the competing claim that gender congruence between managers and employee…
State Governments as Entrepreneurs in Securing Federal Benefits for Their Citizens
Journal Article State Governments as Entrepreneurs in Securing Federal Benefits for Their Citizens Get access Susan M. Miller, Susan M. Miller **Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina; [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Lael R. Keiser Lael R. Keiser †University of Missouri; [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scho…
Does Administrative Burden Influence Public Support for Government Programs? Evidence from a Survey Experiment
Research indicates that administrative burden influences the behaviors and views of clients and potential clients of government programs. However, administrative burden may also shape mass attitudes toward government programs. Taking a behavioral public administration approach, the authors consider whether and how exposure to information about administrative burden embedded within eligibility‐based programs influences citizen favorability toward …
The power of comparisons
While previous research has explored how performance data can influence organizations and considered the factors that shape public managers' use of performance data, we know less about the way in which individual bureaucrats respond to performance information. Considerable research illustrates the power of peer information in a variety of contexts, including energy use, voting, and charitable giving. We suggest that public employees may adjust th…
Administrative burden, social construction, and public support for government programs
Administrative burden imposes costs on citizens as they interact with government. A high level of administrative burden in programs is linked to negative outcomes for those engaging with the policy, such as reduced take-up. However, despite the negative effects, the mass public is often supportive of greater administrative burden for government programs, and research suggests that high levels of burden can increase favorability toward government …
Representative Bureaucracy and Attitudes Toward Automated Decision Making
The theory of representative bureaucracy posits that citizens will view policy and service delivery more favorably if public servants share their background characteristics. However, automation is changing public service delivery, limiting human involvement in the process. We examine attitudes toward automated decision making through the lens of representative bureaucracy, generating expectations about how a lack of passive representation will af…
The Importance of Oversight and Agency Capacity in Enhancing Performance in Public Service Delivery
Government agencies often encounter problems in service delivery when implementing public programs. This undermines effectiveness and raise questions about accountability. A central component of responsiveness and performance management is that agencies correct course when problems are identified. However, public agencies have an uneven record in responding to problems. In this article, we investigate whether, and to what extent, capacity both wi…
Race, representation, and policy attitudes in U.S. public schools
Numerous institutions, such as the police, public schools, legislatures, and the courts face criticism for a lack of diversity and representation. According to various political theorists, the lack of representation of marginalized groups in public institutions worsens citizen attitudes. In response, some advocate for increasing passive representation within public institutions. However, different schools of thought exist about whether increasing…
The effect of human versus automated interaction on willingness to participate in government programs
Increased reliance on automated systems in government raises important questions about the impact of these systems on program participation. We look at the relationship between an automated application process and program participation through a representation lens. From a representative bureaucracy perspective, we examine whether gender representation increases participation intentions compared with interacting with an automated system. We also …
Compliance with Public Health Orders
Governments rely on citizen compliance to implement policies. Yet, in the current climate where citizens express low levels of trust in government, gaining compliance can prove challenging. Scholarship suggests other factors that might promote compliance even in the absence of trust. We examine two: expertise and descriptive representation across race, gender, and partisanship. We experimentally activate general (dis)trust in government and use a…
Political science (24 works) · Economics (17 works) · Law (17 works) · Politics (17 works) · Law (14 works) · Business (12 works) · Public Administration (12 works) · Public Policy and Administration Research (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Public economics (11 works)