Melissa Tepe
Biographic Data
| ID | 199842 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melissa Tepe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melissa |
| FAMILY NAME | Tepe |
| SIGNATURE | TEPE M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6679-0346 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 403 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 46 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Populist attitudes among civil servants: A source of liberal robustness
This study examines civil servants’ normative orientations toward democracy, focusing on the absence of populist attitudes as a potential source of resilience against democratic backsliding in public administration. Drawing on the concept of democratic anchoring, we expect civil servants and public sector employees to display lower levels of populism than their private-sector counterparts. Panel data from Germany confirm this expectation and show…
Public sector culture does not increase honest behavior: Evidence from RCTs in five countries
Honest behavior of public sector workers is an important quality of governance, impacting the functioning of government institutions, the level of corruption, economic development and public trust. Scholars often assume that honesty is inherent to public sector culture, however empirical evidence on the causal effect of public sector culture on honest behavior is lacking. This research addresses this question by estimating the causal effect of pr…
Biased by Design? Case Managers' Multidimensional Preferences Toward the Design of Algorithmic Decision Support Systems
This study examines whether street‐level bureaucrats' preferences toward algorithmic decision support (ADS) induce a unilateral shift of technology‐related risks onto clients of the public employment service. Expanding on public value theory and research on moral agency in public service work, we argue that case managers' choices of ADS designs are shaped by a plurality of professional, service, and efficiency values. To test this argument, we co…
Motivated reasoning about artificial intelligence in public policy: Comparative evidence from Germany
This study tests whether citizens’ evaluations of the performance of artificial intelligence (AI) in public policies are subject to motivated reasoning. Specifically, we test whether respondents’ preferences for AI regulation or their subjective attitudes toward AI are sources of motivated reasoning across varying use cases, differing in nature, complexity, safety-criticality and normative considerations: AI in municipal services, self-driving ca…
Partisan Homogeneity Does Not Increase Collaborative Corruption
This study examines the behavioral consequences of partisan group composition on cooperation in a setting where cooperation is mutually beneficial but unethical. Collaborative corruption highlights that corruption is not a solitary act but necessitates cooperation. Based on the premise that partisanship serves as a social identity, leading ordinary citizens to reward co-partisans and penalize out-partisans, we expect that collaborative corruption…
Are case managers willing to entrust counseling tasks to artificial intelligence? The role of administrative discretion, client interaction, and technology attitudes
This study investigates case managers’ willingness to entrust counseling tasks to decision-support systems using Artificial Intelligence (AI). We theorize three factors influencing this willingness: the discretionary nature of the task, the salience of client interaction in case managers’ professional identity, and their preconceptions of AI. To test the explanatory power of these factors, we conducted an online survey, including a priming experi…
Elevating Voices, Addressing Depression, Toxic Stress, and Equity Through Group Prenatal Care: A Pilot Study
Introduction: Elevating Voices, Addressing Depression, Toxic Stress and Equity (EleVATE) is a group prenatal care (GC) model designed to improve pregnancy outcomes and promote health equity for Black birthing people. This article outlines the foundational community-engaged process to develop EleVATE GC and pilot study results. Methods: We used community-based participatory research principles and the Ferguson Commission Report to guide creation o…
Public value positions and design preferences toward AI-based chatbots in e-government. Evidence from a conjoint experiment with citizens and municipal front desk officers
Developing a chatbot to handle citizen requests in a municipal office requires multiple design choices. We use public value theory to test how value positions shape these design choices. In a conjoint experiment, we asked German citizens ( n = 1690) and front desk officers in municipalities ( n = 267) to evaluate hypothetical chatbot designs that differ in their fulfillment of goals derived from different value positions: (1) maintaining security…
Multidimensional preference for technology risk regulation: The role of political beliefs, technology attitudes, and national innovation cultures
Building on the concept of participatory regulation, this study emphasizes recognizing the multidimensional character of citizens' risk regulation preferences. Using the case of autonomous vehicles, we specify six technology‐related risks: product safety, regulatory oversight, legal liability, ethical prioritization, data protection, and human supervision. We argue that differences in these multidimensional risk regulation preferences are shaped …
Framing the approval to test self-driving cars on public roads. The effect of safety and competitiveness on citizens' agreement
Who wants Covid-19 vaccination to be compulsory? The impact of party cues, left-right ideology, and populism
Vaccine hesitancy is one of the major obstacles for successfully combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve a sufficiently high vaccination rate, calls for compulsory vaccinations have been discussed controversially. This study analyses what drives citizens’ attitudes towards compulsory vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we are interested in the impact of party- and expert cues on public attitudes. We further expect …
Electoral system preferences of citizens compared: Evidence from a conjoint experiment in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom
Electoral systems fulfill different functions. Typically, they cannot meet all demands at the same time, so that the evaluation of specific electoral systems depends on subjective preferences about the single demands. We argue that it is the electorate which transfers its power to representatives and, therefore, its preferences should be considered in debates about electoral systems. Consequently, our contribution presents results of citizens’ de…
Prioritizing exceptional social needs. Experimental evidence on the role of discrimination and client deservingness in public employees’ and citizens’ discretionary behavior
This study examines how public employees and citizens exercise administrative discretion in a dilemma. To identify and compare the moral reasoning underlying discretionary choices, we conducted a conjoint experiment among public employees, future civil servants, and lay citizens in Germany. In the conjoint, respondents were forced to prioritize between two equally eligible welfare claimants. Claimants’ profiles vary concerning attributes reflecti…
Perceived Discrimination During Prenatal Care at a Community Health Center
Administrative delegation revisited: Experimental evidence on the behavioural consequences of public service motivation and risk aversion
Getting a grip on issues of administrative delegation is key to the performance of public organizations. The oversight game models delegation as a conflict of interest between an inspector and an inspectee to act in the interests of the former. This study tests alternative solutions to overcome ‘shirking’ in the oversight game. Specifically, we test the effect of external incentives, as implied by the game-theoretical solution, against the role o…
How stable are ‘left’ and ‘right’? A morphological analysis using open-ended survey responses of parliamentary candidates
The left–right scale is widely used to measure ideological orientation. Relying on Freeden's approach to political ideology as a ‘conceptual morphology’, we argue that the meaning of ‘left’ and ‘right’ may change, but these changes are more likely for peripheral than core concepts. To test this argument, we analyze open-ended questions on the meaning of ‘left’ and ‘right’ included in two waves of surveys of German parliamentary candidates collect…
The impact of anti-establishment parties on the electoral success of independent local lists: Evidence from Germany
Independent local lists (ILL) have become an important non-partisan actor in many local elections. However, little is known about which factors explain their electoral success. Drawing on recent contributions regarding the anti-establishment attitudes of many ILL, we argue that the rise of anti-establishment parties, especially the rise of populist radical-right parties, potentially harms the electoral success of ILL. Our main argument is that bo…
Public-Sector Honesty and Corruption: Field Evidence from 40 Countries
This study presents a theoretical model of honest behavior in the public sector (public-sector honesty) and its relationship with corruption. We test this model empirically by utilizing and extending a unique data set of honest behavior of public- and private-sector workers across 40 countries, gathered in a field experiment conducted by Cohn et al. (N = 17,303). We find that public-sector honesty is determined by country-level societal culture a…
Keep it Simple! German Voters’ Limited Competence to Evaluate Electoral Systems’ Functions
Electoral systems are a fundamental feature of any democratic system, and the design of an electoral system can have a tremendous impact on party-, candidate-, and voter-behaviour. However, in order to use all features of an electoral system as intended, voters must have a clear understanding of how their electoral system actually works. While earlier studies have already shown that many German voters have limited knowledge about the characterist…
Deciding how to decide on public goods provision: The role of instrumental versus intrinsic motives
What determines citizens’ preferences over alternative decision-making procedures – the personal gain associated with a procedure, or the intrinsic value assigned to it? To answer this question, we present results of a laboratory experiment in which participants select a procedure to decide on the provision of a public good. In the first stage, they choose between majority voting and delegation to a welfare-maximizing algorithm. In the second sta…
Talk or type? The effect of digital interfaces on citizens' satisfaction with standardized public services
Although digital interfaces are increasingly pervading public administration, little is known about how replacing face‐to‐face interaction with digital interfaces affects citizens' satisfaction with public service encounters. This study presents evidence from a vignette experiment conducted on a sample of German citizens ( N = 1.234) whereby we randomly varied the type of public service request with regard to its psychological costs, service qual…
Vaccine alliance building blocks: A conjoint experiment on popular support for international Covid-19 cooperation formats
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11077-021-09435-1
Merit, Luck, and Taxes: Societal Reward Rules, Self-Interest, and Ideology in a Real-Effort Voting Experiment
When are high earnings considered a legitimate target for redistribution, and when not? We design a real-effort laboratory experiment in which we manipulate the assignment of payrates (societal “reward rules”) that translate performance on a real-effort counting task into pre-tax earnings. We then ask subjects to vote on a flat tax rate in groups of three. We distinguish three treatment conditions: the same payrate for all group members (“equal” …
Efficiency loss and support for income redistribution: Evidence from a laboratory experiment
Income redistribution with an efficiency loss is expected to have a twofold negative effect on support for redistribution, as it lowers egoistic support for redistribution and activates efficiency preferences. This study tests whether such a negative relationship exists, increases with the size of efficiency loss and interacts with group communication and the income position. We present a laboratory experiment in which subjects receive a randomly…
Taking social policy personally: How does neuroticism affect welfare state attitudes
The role of the “Big Five” personality traits in driving welfare state attitudes has received scant attention in social policy research. Yet neuroticism in particular—a disposition to stress, worry, and get nervous easily—is theoretically likely to be an important driver of welfare attitudes precisely because welfare states deliver social “security” and “safety” nets. Using cross‐sectional data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel, we study three…
Age‐based self‐interest, intergenerational solidarity and the welfare state: A comparative analysis of older people's attitudes towards public childcare in 12 OECD countries
When faced with the necessity of reforming welfare states in ageing societies, politicians tend to demand more solidarity between generations because they assume that reforms require sacrifices from older people. Political economy models, however, do not investigate such a mechanism of intergenerational solidarity, suggesting that only age‐based self‐interest motivates welfare preferences. Against this backdrop, this article asks: Does the experi…
Are Aging OECD Welfare States on the Path to Gerontocracy: Evidence from 18 Democracies, 1980–2002
Since 1990 the age of the average OECD median voter has increased three times faster than in the preceding 30 years. We use panel data from 1980–2002 to investigate the effects of population aging on both the program size and the benefit generosity of public pensions in 18 OECD countries. Population aging is accompanied by cutting smaller slices out of larger cakes: it increases aggregate spending on pensions but freezes or decreases the generosi…
Elderly bias, new social risks and social spending: Change and timing in eight programmes across four worlds of welfare, 1980-2003
Over the past decades, all affluent welfare states have been coping with two major new trends: population ageing and new social risks resulting from de-industrialization. How have these demand-side trends, and their timing, affected welfare spending? We investigate up to 21 OECD democracies with respect to eight separate programmes and two composite indicators of aggregate welfare spending bias towards the elderly and new social risks. We find th…
Doing It for the Kids? The Determinants of Attitudes towards Public Childcare in Unified Germany
In order to explain why people differ in their attitudes towards public childcare, we present a theoretical framework that integrates four causal mechanisms: regime socialisation, political ideology, family involvement and material self-interest. Estimation results obtained from multivariate regressions on the 2002 German General Social Survey and replications on the 2008/9 European Social Survey can be condensed into three statements: (1) Regime…
Parties, Unions and Activation Strategies: The Context-Dependent Politics of Active Labour Market Policy Spending
This article explores the diverging roles of left-wing parties and trade unions in determining active labour market programme (ALMP) spending. We argue that unions today increasingly take into account the distinct re-employability worries of their members. Rather than as a labour market outsider programme, unions now consider ALMPs, especially those sub-programmes most directly useful to their members, as their second-best or first-best feasible …
Representative Bureaucracy and Public Hiring Preferences: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment among German Municipal Civil Servants and Private Sector Employees
Drawing on Weber, this study tests whether the normative principles of merit orientation and impartiality are more prevalent in shaping public hiring preferences among civil servants—both junior and senior—than among private sector employees. In a conjoint experiment, respondents are asked to compare two hypothetical applicants for an office job in a municipal administration and to decide which they would hire. The application profiles vary with …
Ideological alternative? Analyzing Alternative für Deutschland candidates’ ideal points via black box scaling
This study applies black box scaling to the German Longitudinal Election Study candidate survey 2013 to shed light on an emerging right-wing party in Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The scaling procedure extracts two meaningful and robust ideological dimensions described as socialism versus liberalism and libertarian versus authoritarian. Placing the ideal point of candidates from all parties into this two-dimensional space shows …
The Public/Private Sector Cleavage Revisited: The Impact of Government Employment on Political Attitudes and Behaviour in 11 West European Countries
This study explores a refined model of public/private sector cleavage voting. Assuming that market and work experiences are crucial for people to develop common political views, it investigates three contexts that shape government employees' willingness to vote as a single constituency: the branch of public sector production, the occupational status, and the type of service economy. Estimation results obtained from regressions on European Social …
The impact of anti-establishment parties on the electoral success of independent local lists: Evidence from Germany
Independent local lists (ILL) have become an important non-partisan actor in many local elections. However, little is known about which factors explain their electoral success. Drawing on recent contributions regarding the anti-establishment attitudes of many ILL, we argue that the rise of anti-establishment parties, especially the rise of populist radical-right parties, potentially harms the electoral success of ILL. Our main argument is that bo…
Talk or type? The effect of digital interfaces on citizens' satisfaction with standardized public services
Although digital interfaces are increasingly pervading public administration, little is known about how replacing face‐to‐face interaction with digital interfaces affects citizens' satisfaction with public service encounters. This study presents evidence from a vignette experiment conducted on a sample of German citizens ( N = 1.234) whereby we randomly varied the type of public service request with regard to its psychological costs, service qual…
Are Future Bureaucrats More Risk Averse? The Effect of Studying Public Administration and PSM on Risk Preferences
This study tests the effect of studying public administration and self-reported Public Service Motivation (PSM) on risk preferences. We conduct a compound lottery choice experiment with monetary rewards to measure risk behavior and a post-experiment survey to measure risk attitudes and PSM on three student subject pools. Empirical findings suggest that: First, students of public administration consider themselves more risk averse, but they do not…
Who wants Covid-19 vaccination to be compulsory? The impact of party cues, left-right ideology, and populism
Vaccine hesitancy is one of the major obstacles for successfully combating the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve a sufficiently high vaccination rate, calls for compulsory vaccinations have been discussed controversially. This study analyses what drives citizens’ attitudes towards compulsory vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we are interested in the impact of party- and expert cues on public attitudes. We further expect …
Public-Sector Honesty and Corruption: Field Evidence from 40 Countries
This study presents a theoretical model of honest behavior in the public sector (public-sector honesty) and its relationship with corruption. We test this model empirically by utilizing and extending a unique data set of honest behavior of public- and private-sector workers across 40 countries, gathered in a field experiment conducted by Cohn et al. (N = 17,303). We find that public-sector honesty is determined by country-level societal culture a…
To adapt or to defend? Comparing position shifts among Bundestag candidates between 2013 and 2017
In this research note, candidate survey data from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) is used to analyse positional shifts of German Bundestag parties between 2013 and 2017. Two developments make Germany a particularly interesting case: (1) the liberal but also controversial policies of the Merkel cabinet during the European refugee crisis and (2) the change of leadership within the right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland …
Are future bureaucrats more prosocial
This article explores the associations between self‐reported Public Service Motivation (PSM) and preferred job traits, study choice, and observable prosocial behaviour. We studied three subject pools covering over 250 university students in Germany. We used laboratory experiments with monetary rewards to measure altruism, fairness, strategic fairness, and cooperativeness, and a post‐experimental survey on subjects' PSM. Higher levels of PSM were …
Keep it Simple! German Voters’ Limited Competence to Evaluate Electoral Systems’ Functions
Electoral systems are a fundamental feature of any democratic system, and the design of an electoral system can have a tremendous impact on party-, candidate-, and voter-behaviour. However, in order to use all features of an electoral system as intended, voters must have a clear understanding of how their electoral system actually works. While earlier studies have already shown that many German voters have limited knowledge about the characterist…
Cops for hire? The political economy of police employment in the German states
In times of an alleged waning of political business cycles and partisan policy-making, vote-seeking policy-makers can be expected toshiftthe use of political manipulation mechanisms towards other policy domains in which the macro-institutional environment allows them greater leverage. Public employment generally, and police employment specifically, are a promising domain for such tactics. Timing the hiring of police officers during election perio…
Who Cuts Back and When? The Politics of Delays in Social Expenditure Cutbacks, 1980–2005
This article investigates the politics of delays in social spending cutbacks in OECD democracies. In the context of fiscal austerity, policymakers are assumed to have a strong incentive to manipulate the timing of cutbacks strategically. Applying event history analysis to small and large cutbacks in 21 mature welfare states, we test whether partisanship, electioneering, and institutional constraints contribute to explain the timing of cutbacks. M…
A structural fit between states and markets? Public administration regimes and market economy models in the OECD
This article examines the relationship between public administration regimes and market economy models in 20 member countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Building on Pollitt and Bouckaert's (2004) description of politico-administrative regimes, we compile a data set of cross-national public administration indicators to explore public employment and politico-administrative regulation. Our explorative sta…
Educational business cycles: The political economy of teacher hiring across German states, 1992–2004
Does Exposure to Stereotype‐Disconfirming Politicians Reduce the Effect of Stereotypes on Voting? Evidence From Seven Plagiarism Scandals in Germany
We examine whether exposure to several salient counterexamples reduces the effect of stereotypes on voting. By taking advantage of a series of seven plagiarism scandals in Germany—a country with high regard for academic credentials where academic titles (Dr. and Prof.) get printed on ballot papers—we test whether the tendency to vote for candidates with a doctor's title decreased in the wake of the scandals. Using cross‐sectional and longitudinal…
Multidimensional preference for technology risk regulation: The role of political beliefs, technology attitudes, and national innovation cultures
Building on the concept of participatory regulation, this study emphasizes recognizing the multidimensional character of citizens' risk regulation preferences. Using the case of autonomous vehicles, we specify six technology‐related risks: product safety, regulatory oversight, legal liability, ethical prioritization, data protection, and human supervision. We argue that differences in these multidimensional risk regulation preferences are shaped …
How stable are ‘left’ and ‘right’? A morphological analysis using open-ended survey responses of parliamentary candidates
The left–right scale is widely used to measure ideological orientation. Relying on Freeden's approach to political ideology as a ‘conceptual morphology’, we argue that the meaning of ‘left’ and ‘right’ may change, but these changes are more likely for peripheral than core concepts. To test this argument, we analyze open-ended questions on the meaning of ‘left’ and ‘right’ included in two waves of surveys of German parliamentary candidates collect…
Public value positions and design preferences toward AI-based chatbots in e-government. Evidence from a conjoint experiment with citizens and municipal front desk officers
Developing a chatbot to handle citizen requests in a municipal office requires multiple design choices. We use public value theory to test how value positions shape these design choices. In a conjoint experiment, we asked German citizens ( n = 1690) and front desk officers in municipalities ( n = 267) to evaluate hypothetical chatbot designs that differ in their fulfillment of goals derived from different value positions: (1) maintaining security…
Efficiency loss and support for income redistribution: Evidence from a laboratory experiment
Income redistribution with an efficiency loss is expected to have a twofold negative effect on support for redistribution, as it lowers egoistic support for redistribution and activates efficiency preferences. This study tests whether such a negative relationship exists, increases with the size of efficiency loss and interacts with group communication and the income position. We present a laboratory experiment in which subjects receive a randomly…
Zur Reputations- und Performanzmessung politikwissenschaftlicher Institute in Deutschland
Die „Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft“ versteht sich als Forum für die gesamte Politikwissenschaft. Sie bietet eine Plattform für alle Teildisziplinen und Felder sowie für alle Ansätze und Richtungen des Fachs. Als gemeinsames Band stehen dabei die Grundlagen-, Theorie- und Praxisorientierung sowie die kritische Diskussion im Vordergrund der wissenschaftlichen Beiträge. Neben begutachteten Aufsätzen (Double Blind Peer Review), die im Zentrum j…
Educational business cycles: The political economy of teacher hiring across German states, 1992–2004
Are Aging OECD Welfare States on the Path to Gerontocracy: Evidence from 18 Democracies, 1980–2002
Since 1990 the age of the average OECD median voter has increased three times faster than in the preceding 30 years. We use panel data from 1980–2002 to investigate the effects of population aging on both the program size and the benefit generosity of public pensions in 18 OECD countries. Population aging is accompanied by cutting smaller slices out of larger cakes: it increases aggregate spending on pensions but freezes or decreases the generosi…
Elderly bias, new social risks and social spending: Change and timing in eight programmes across four worlds of welfare, 1980-2003
Over the past decades, all affluent welfare states have been coping with two major new trends: population ageing and new social risks resulting from de-industrialization. How have these demand-side trends, and their timing, affected welfare spending? We investigate up to 21 OECD democracies with respect to eight separate programmes and two composite indicators of aggregate welfare spending bias towards the elderly and new social risks. We find th…
Who Cuts Back and When? The Politics of Delays in Social Expenditure Cutbacks, 1980–2005
This article investigates the politics of delays in social spending cutbacks in OECD democracies. In the context of fiscal austerity, policymakers are assumed to have a strong incentive to manipulate the timing of cutbacks strategically. Applying event history analysis to small and large cutbacks in 21 mature welfare states, we test whether partisanship, electioneering, and institutional constraints contribute to explain the timing of cutbacks. M…
Age‐based self‐interest, intergenerational solidarity and the welfare state: A comparative analysis of older people's attitudes towards public childcare in 12 OECD countries
When faced with the necessity of reforming welfare states in ageing societies, politicians tend to demand more solidarity between generations because they assume that reforms require sacrifices from older people. Political economy models, however, do not investigate such a mechanism of intergenerational solidarity, suggesting that only age‐based self‐interest motivates welfare preferences. Against this backdrop, this article asks: Does the experi…
A structural fit between states and markets? Public administration regimes and market economy models in the OECD
This article examines the relationship between public administration regimes and market economy models in 20 member countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Building on Pollitt and Bouckaert's (2004) description of politico-administrative regimes, we compile a data set of cross-national public administration indicators to explore public employment and politico-administrative regulation. Our explorative sta…
The Public/Private Sector Cleavage Revisited: The Impact of Government Employment on Political Attitudes and Behaviour in 11 West European Countries
This study explores a refined model of public/private sector cleavage voting. Assuming that market and work experiences are crucial for people to develop common political views, it investigates three contexts that shape government employees' willingness to vote as a single constituency: the branch of public sector production, the occupational status, and the type of service economy. Estimation results obtained from regressions on European Social …
Doing It for the Kids? The Determinants of Attitudes towards Public Childcare in Unified Germany
In order to explain why people differ in their attitudes towards public childcare, we present a theoretical framework that integrates four causal mechanisms: regime socialisation, political ideology, family involvement and material self-interest. Estimation results obtained from multivariate regressions on the 2002 German General Social Survey and replications on the 2008/9 European Social Survey can be condensed into three statements: (1) Regime…
Für die Kleinen ist uns nichts zu teuer? Kindergartengebühren und ihre Determinanten in Deutschlands 95 bevölkerungsreichsten Städten zwischen 2007 und 2010
Dieser Beitrag untersucht die polit-ökonomischen Determinanten der Elternbeiträge für kommunale Kindergärten und diskutiert die Steuerungsfunktion und Politisierung der Beiträge. Erstens erklären strukturelle Rahmenbedingungen wie die Ausgaben des Landes für Kinder im Vorschulalter, das Schuldenniveau und die Bevölkerungsdichte die Beitragshöhe gemäß einer einfachen Ressourcenthese: je mehr Mittel zur Verfügung stehen, desto geringer sind die Elt…
Parties, Unions and Activation Strategies: The Context-Dependent Politics of Active Labour Market Policy Spending
This article explores the diverging roles of left-wing parties and trade unions in determining active labour market programme (ALMP) spending. We argue that unions today increasingly take into account the distinct re-employability worries of their members. Rather than as a labour market outsider programme, unions now consider ALMPs, especially those sub-programmes most directly useful to their members, as their second-best or first-best feasible …
Cops for hire? The political economy of police employment in the German states
In times of an alleged waning of political business cycles and partisan policy-making, vote-seeking policy-makers can be expected toshiftthe use of political manipulation mechanisms towards other policy domains in which the macro-institutional environment allows them greater leverage. Public employment generally, and police employment specifically, are a promising domain for such tactics. Timing the hiring of police officers during election perio…
Public Sector Employment Regimes: Transformations of the State As an Employer
This book explores the extent to which a transformation of public employment regimes has taken place in four Western countries, and the factors influencing the pathways of reform. It demonstrates how
Just Don’t Call it a Tax! Framing in an Experiment on Voting and Redistribution
Utilizing a simplified version of the Meltzer–Richard redistribution mechanism, we designed a laboratory experiment to test whether it matters if voters were asked to decide on a tax rate or a minimum income, leaving the redistribution mechanism itself unchanged. Framing the vote about redistribution as a decision about a minimal income increases the individually and ideally preferred level of redistribution. This effect outlives the groups’ deli…
Are future bureaucrats more prosocial
This article explores the associations between self‐reported Public Service Motivation (PSM) and preferred job traits, study choice, and observable prosocial behaviour. We studied three subject pools covering over 250 university students in Germany. We used laboratory experiments with monetary rewards to measure altruism, fairness, strategic fairness, and cooperativeness, and a post‐experimental survey on subjects' PSM. Higher levels of PSM were …
Ideological alternative? Analyzing Alternative für Deutschland candidates’ ideal points via black box scaling
This study applies black box scaling to the German Longitudinal Election Study candidate survey 2013 to shed light on an emerging right-wing party in Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The scaling procedure extracts two meaningful and robust ideological dimensions described as socialism versus liberalism and libertarian versus authoritarian. Placing the ideal point of candidates from all parties into this two-dimensional space shows …
Information accuracy in legislative oversight: Theoretical implications and experimental evidence
The relationship between legislatures and bureaucracies is typically modeled as a principal-agent game. Legislators can acquire information about the (non-)compliance of bureaucrats at some specific cost. Previous studies consider the information from oversight to be perfect, which contradicts most real-world applications. We therefore provide a model that includes random noise as part of the information. The quality of provided goods usually inc…
Does Exposure to Stereotype‐Disconfirming Politicians Reduce the Effect of Stereotypes on Voting? Evidence From Seven Plagiarism Scandals in Germany
We examine whether exposure to several salient counterexamples reduces the effect of stereotypes on voting. By taking advantage of a series of seven plagiarism scandals in Germany—a country with high regard for academic credentials where academic titles (Dr. and Prof.) get printed on ballot papers—we test whether the tendency to vote for candidates with a doctor's title decreased in the wake of the scandals. Using cross‐sectional and longitudinal…
Are Future Bureaucrats More Risk Averse? The Effect of Studying Public Administration and PSM on Risk Preferences
This study tests the effect of studying public administration and self-reported Public Service Motivation (PSM) on risk preferences. We conduct a compound lottery choice experiment with monetary rewards to measure risk behavior and a post-experiment survey to measure risk attitudes and PSM on three student subject pools. Empirical findings suggest that: First, students of public administration consider themselves more risk averse, but they do not…
To adapt or to defend? Comparing position shifts among Bundestag candidates between 2013 and 2017
In this research note, candidate survey data from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) is used to analyse positional shifts of German Bundestag parties between 2013 and 2017. Two developments make Germany a particularly interesting case: (1) the liberal but also controversial policies of the Merkel cabinet during the European refugee crisis and (2) the change of leadership within the right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland …
Taking social policy personally: How does neuroticism affect welfare state attitudes
The role of the “Big Five” personality traits in driving welfare state attitudes has received scant attention in social policy research. Yet neuroticism in particular—a disposition to stress, worry, and get nervous easily—is theoretically likely to be an important driver of welfare attitudes precisely because welfare states deliver social “security” and “safety” nets. Using cross‐sectional data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel, we study three…
Representative Bureaucracy and Public Hiring Preferences: Evidence from a Conjoint Experiment among German Municipal Civil Servants and Private Sector Employees
Drawing on Weber, this study tests whether the normative principles of merit orientation and impartiality are more prevalent in shaping public hiring preferences among civil servants—both junior and senior—than among private sector employees. In a conjoint experiment, respondents are asked to compare two hypothetical applicants for an office job in a municipal administration and to decide which they would hire. The application profiles vary with …
Deciding how to decide on public goods provision: The role of instrumental versus intrinsic motives
What determines citizens’ preferences over alternative decision-making procedures – the personal gain associated with a procedure, or the intrinsic value assigned to it? To answer this question, we present results of a laboratory experiment in which participants select a procedure to decide on the provision of a public good. In the first stage, they choose between majority voting and delegation to a welfare-maximizing algorithm. In the second sta…
Talk or type? The effect of digital interfaces on citizens' satisfaction with standardized public services
Although digital interfaces are increasingly pervading public administration, little is known about how replacing face‐to‐face interaction with digital interfaces affects citizens' satisfaction with public service encounters. This study presents evidence from a vignette experiment conducted on a sample of German citizens ( N = 1.234) whereby we randomly varied the type of public service request with regard to its psychological costs, service qual…
Vaccine alliance building blocks: A conjoint experiment on popular support for international Covid-19 cooperation formats
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11077-021-09435-1
Political science (39 works) · Economics (28 works) · Politics (23 works) · Law (21 works) · Law (21 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (12 works) · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies (12 works) · German (12 works) · Microeconomics (11 works)