Christian Schuster

Biographic Data

ID4375294
NAMEChristian Schuster
GIVEN NAMESChristian
FAMILY NAMESchuster
SIGNATURESCHUSTER C
AFFILIATIONSUniversity College London
ORCID0000-0002-0126-2681
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS34
TOTAL CITATIONS338
AUTHOR COUNT33
EDITOR COUNT1
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1959
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX10

  • Performance Rewards and Job Satisfaction in More and Less Developed Countries: Multi‐Level Evidence From Bureaucrats in 10 Countries

    Open AccessPaola Cantarelli, Jan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling et al.ARTICLEPublic Administration2025References: 13

    Do the same management practices lead to greater job satisfaction in poorer and richer countries? Despite the centrality of this question, prior research has not statistically assessed it through multi‐country studies. We address this omission for one quintessential OECD country management reform: linking rewards—pay and promotion—to performance. We argue that performance rewards matter more for job satisfaction in richer than in poorer countries…

  • Does political corruption reduce pro‐social behavior by bureaucrats? Lab experimental evidence from Bangladesh

    Open AccessEleanor Florence Woodhouse, Jan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling et al.ARTICLEGovernance2024References: 41

    Numerous studies assess how politicians control and shape bureaucracy. Yet, how politicians' behavior affects the norms and behaviors of bureaucrats through role modeling has not been studied. This is a curious omission, in light of evidence that social norms shape bureaucratic behavior. Through a lab experiment with over 900 bureaucrats in Bangladesh, we explore whether political corruption affects bureaucrats' pro‐social behavior and whether th…

  • How scholars can support government analytics: Combining employee surveys with more administrative data sources towards a better understanding of how government functions

    Open AccessDaniel Rogger, Christian SchusterARTICLEPublic Administration Review2024References: 14

    With the digitization of administrative systems, governments have gained access to rich data about their administrative operations. How governments leverage such data to improve their administration—what we call government analytics—will shape government effectiveness. This article summarizes a conceptual framework which showcases that data can help diagnose and improve all components of a public administration production function—from inputs suc…

  • Unethical leadership, moral compensation, and ethical followership: Evidence from a survey experiment with Chilean public servants

    Open AccessChristian Schuster, Javier Fuenzalida et al.ARTICLEPublic Administration Review2024References: 47

    Numerous studies associate ethical leadership with ethical behavior in the public sector. By contrast, the effects of unethical leadership in the public sector have largely not been explored. Yet, unethical leadership need not beget unethical followership. Instead, we theorize that some bureaucrats may perceive unethical leadership as a moral threat and respond to it with moral compensation and greater ethical behavior. We provide evidence for ou…

  • Does citizen participation make public servants more satisfied with their jobs? It depends on whether they are Spectators or Participants

    Open AccessK M Baharul Islam, Kazi Maruful Islam et al.ARTICLEPublic Administration and…2023

    Is citizen participation in policymaking and implementation desirable? Numerous studies have explored its effects on policy outcomes and citizen attitudes. We, instead, examine its effects on public servants. Citizen participation changes public sector job characteristics and thus potentially job attitudes. Looking at job satisfaction, we argue that citizen participation negatively affects public servants who observe, but do not participate in ci…

  • The Government Analytics Handbook: Leveraging Data to Strengthen Public Administration

    World Bank, Daniel Rogger et al.BOOKGovernment Analytics Handbook2023

    Governments across the world make thousands of personnel management decisions, procure millions of goods and services, and execute billions of processes each day. They are data rich. And yet, there is little systematic practice to-date which capitalizes on this data to make public administrations work better. This means that governments are missing out on data insights to save billions in procurement expenditures, recruit better talent into gover…

  • The Global Survey of Public Servants: Evidence from 1,300,000 Public Servants in 1,300 Government Institutions in 23 Countries

    Open AccessChristian Schuster, Kim Sass Mikkelsen et al.ARTICLEPublic Administration Review2023References: 13

    Understanding how public administrations around the world function and differ is crucial for strengthening their effectiveness. Most comparative measures of bureaucracy rely on surveys of experts, households, or firms, rather than directly questioning bureaucrats. Direct surveys of public officials create granular data for analysis and government action, so are becoming a cornerstone of public sector management. This article introduces the Global…

  • Activating the “Big Man: Social Status, Patronage Networks, and Pro-Social Behavior in African Bureaucracies

    Open AccessA S Harris, Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling et al.ARTICLEJournal of Public Administration…2023Cited by: 5References: 43

    Public service delivery by African states is often characterized as particularist, favoring ethnic, personal or political networks of those inside the state over universalist, pro-social services to citizens. One explanation for particularist service delivery focuses on societal patronage norms, with “Big Men” providing for members of their networks. Despite the prominence of this line of reasoning and the anecdotal prevalence of “Big Men” in pol…

  • Varieties of connections, varieties of corruption: Evidence from bureaucrats in five countries

    Open AccessA S Harris, Jan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling et al.ARTICLEGovernance2023Cited by: 8References: 51

    Why do some bureaucrats engage in corruption for personal gain, yet others for political gain? We show that these forms of corruption frequently do not coincide and offer an explanation: bureaucrats hired based on political and personal connections have different identities and incentives which compel them to engage in corruption for political and personal gain respectively. List experiments with a unique sample of 6400 bureaucrats in five countr…

  • Do Bureaucrats Contribute to the Resource Curse? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in New Oil States

    Open AccessRachel Sigman, A S Harris et al.ARTICLEThe Journal of Development Studies2022

    The resource curse literature argues that oil production reshapes the fiscal contract between citizens and the state: politicians become less responsive to citizen taxpayers and more likely to use public revenues for their own benefit. This paper examines whether and how bureaucrats influence this breakdown of the fiscal contract. Analysing results of a survey experiment conducted with government employees in Ghana and Uganda, we find that, when …

  • Burden of Disease Due to Ambient Particulate Matter in Germany—Explaining the Differences in the Available Estimates

    Open AccessMyriam Tobollik, Sarah Kienzler et al.ARTICLEInternational Journal of…2022

    Ambient particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) pollution is an important threat to human health. The aim of this study is to estimate the environmental burden of disease (EBD) for the German population associated with PM 2.5 exposure in Germany for the years 2010 until 2018. The EBD method was used to quantify relevant indicators, e.g., disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and the life table approach was used to estimate the reduction in life expectancy…

  • Exit, Voice, and Sabotage: Public Service Motivation and Guerrilla Bureaucracy in Times of Unprincipled Political Principals

    Open AccessChristian Schuster, Kim Sass Mikkelsen et al.ARTICLEJournal of Public Administration…2022Cited by: 43References: 43

    Democratic backsliding has multiplied “unprincipled” political principals: governments with weak commitment to the public interest. Why do some bureaucrats engage in voice and guerrilla sabotage to thwart policies against the public interest under “unprincipled principals,” yet others do not? Despite its centrality in contemporary governance, this conundrum has not seen quantitative research. We address this gap with survey evidence from 1,700 Br…

  • Agents of past principals: The lasting effects of incumbents on the political ideology of bureaucrats

    Open AccessRoland Kappe, Christian SchusterARTICLEEuropean Journal of Political…2022Cited by: 2References: 60

    Understanding representation is central to politics. Numerous studies assess under which conditions politicians share citizens’ ideological preferences. However, under which conditions bureaucrats share citizens’ ideological preferences has not been systematically studied. Yet, bureaucratic preferences shape policy outcomes. Our paper thus studies why bureaucrats are more right or left‐wing than citizens in some countries and points of time, yet …

  • Bureaucratic Professionalization is a Contagious Process Inside Government: Evidence from a Priming Experiment with 3,000 Chilean Civil Servants

    Open AccessKim Sass Mikkelsen, Christian Schuster et al.ARTICLEPublic Administration Review2021References: 40

    Education is at the center of theories of how bureaucracies professionalize. Going back to Weber, the process toward a capable and professional bureaucracy has been viewed as driven by the entry of well‐educated, professional recruits. We argue that this perspective misses important dynamics within professionalizing bureaucracies—in particular, how bureaucrats inside government react when bureaucracies professionalize. Building on this insight, w…

  • Responding to Covid‐19 through Surveys of Public Servants

    Open AccessChristian Schuster, Lauren M Weitzman et al.ARTICLEPublic Administration Review2020Cited by: 16References: 2

    Responding to COVID‐19 presents unprecedented challenges for public sector practitioners. Addressing those challenges requires knowledge about the problems that public sector workers face. This Viewpoint essay argues that timely, up‐to‐date surveys of public sector workers are essential tools for identifying problems, resolving bottlenecks, and enabling public sector workers to operate effectively during and in response to the challenges posed by…

  • Merit recruitment, tenure protections and public service motivation: Evidence from a conjoint experiment with 7,300 public servants in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe

    Open AccessJan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling, Kim Sass Mikkelsen et al.ARTICLEPublic Administration2020Cited by: 20References: 11

    How can governments manage civil servants to enhance public service motivation (PSM)? Despite the centrality of PSM in public administration research, the effects of management practices on PSM remain understudied. We address this gap through a conjoint experiment with 7,300 public servants in five countries in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Our experiment assesses two practices: merit‐based competitions for recruitment versus discreti…

  • Patrons against clients: Electoral uncertainty and bureaucratic tenure in politicized states

    Open AccessChristian SchusterARTICLERegulation & Governance2020Cited by: 10References: 44

    Why would incumbents undertake institutional reforms that constrain their discretion over state resources? Many studies point to electoral competition in response. They argue that incumbents who risk exit from office undertake reform to insure themselves against potentially hostile successors. This paper challenges this line of reasoning, arguing that it confounds two potential implications of electoral competition –potentialandcertainelectoral l…

  • Un)principled principals, (un)principled agents: The differential effects of managerial civil service reforms on corruption in developing and OECD countries

    Open AccessChristian Schuster, Jan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling et al.ARTICLEGovernance2020Cited by: 17References: 34

    Do management practices have similar anticorruption effects in OECD and developing countries? Despite prominent cautions against “New Zealand” reforms which enhance managerial discretion in developing countries, scholars have not assessed this question statistically. Our article addresses this gap through a conjoint experiment with 6,500 public servants in three developing countries and one OECD country. Our experiment assesses Weberian relative …

  • Oiling the bureaucracy? political spending, bureaucrats and the resource curse

    Open AccessA S Harris, Rachel Sigman et al.ARTICLEWorld Development2019Cited by: 5References: 33

  • The Causal Effect of Public Service Motivation on Ethical Behavior in the Public Sector: Evidence from a Large-Scale Survey Experiment

    Open AccessJan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling, Jan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling et al.ARTICLEJournal of Public Administration…2019Cited by: 29References: 79

    Public service motivation (PSM) and ethical behavior are central concerns in public administration. Yet, experimental evidence on the causes of ethical behavior and the causal effects of PSM remains scarce, curtailing our understanding of both. This article draws on a novel survey experimental design to improve this understanding. The design is based on a simple insight: asking about PSM can render salient PSM-oriented identities of respondents. …

  • Civil service management and corruption: What we know and what we don't

    Open AccessJan‐hinrik Meyer‐sahling, Kim Sass Mikkelsen et al.ARTICLEPublic Administration2018Cited by: 22References: 14

    Numerous studies have linked a range of economic, social, and institutional variables with corruption in government. Yet, most of this literature overlooks the management of public officials themselves. This is a relevant omission: almost all corrupt exchanges involve public officials. This article reviews studies—36 in total—that do address civil service management and anti‐corruption. It finds that prior works assess a narrow set of civil servi…

  • Cooking the books: Bureaucratic politicization and policy knowledge

    Open AccessFrida Boräng, Agnes Cornell et al.ARTICLEGovernance2018Cited by: 22References: 47

    Accurate knowledge about societal conditions and public policies is an important public good in any polity, yet governments across the world differ dramatically in the extent to which they collect and publish such knowledge. This article develops and tests the argument that this variation to some extent can be traced to the degree of bureaucratic politicization in a polity. A politicized bureaucracy offers politicians greater opportunities to dem…

  • Merit, Tenure, and Bureaucratic Behavior: Evidence From a Conjoint Experiment in the Dominican Republic

    Open AccessVirginia Oliveros, Christian SchusterARTICLEComparative Political Studies2018Cited by: 61References: 76

    Bureaucratic behavior in developing countries remains poorly understood. Why do some public servants—yet not others—work hard to deliver public services, misuse state resources, and/or participate in electoral mobilization? A classic answer comes from Weber: Bureaucratic structures shift behavior toward integrity, neutrality, and commitment to public service. Our study conducts the first survey experimental test of the effects of bureaucratic str…

  • Urban heat stress: Novel survey suggests health and fitness as future avenue for research and adaptation strategies

    Open AccessChristian Schuster, Jasmin Honold et al.ARTICLEEnvironmental Research Letters2017

    Extreme heat has tremendous adverse effects on human health. Heat stress is expected to further increase due to urbanization, an aging population, and global warming. Previous research has identified correlations between extreme heat and mortality. However, the underlying physical, behavioral, environmental, and social risk factors remain largely unknown and comprehensive quantitative investigation on an individual level is lacking. We conducted …

  • Legal reform need not come first: Merit‐based civil service management in law and practice

    Open AccessChristian SchusterARTICLEPublic Administration2017Cited by: 10References: 16

    Introducing merit recruitment of public servants is a central good governance reform. To move towards merit in practice, legislation which mandates merit recruitment is considered a necessary but insufficient first step by many scholars and practitioners. Merit‐based civil service legislation should thus be sought before reform in practice. This article challenges this reasoning. It argues that merit laws are neither sufficient nor necessary: the…