Facilitating Development
Evidence from a National-Level Experiment on Improving Bureaucratic Performance in Myanmar
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10185503 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dean Dulay (0000-0002-4710-5251, Singapore Management University), Edmund Malesky, Edmund J Malesky (0000-0001-5737-9195, Duke University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 85 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1385-1400 |
| Publication date | 2023-01-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/723989 |
| OpenAlex | W4318040113 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 31 |
Despite strong theoretical foundations, randomized evaluations demonstrate that subnational performance assessments have a mixed record in improving governance. We suggest that a key factor influencing this disappointing result has been the omission of facilitation—working with bureaucrats on how to use subnational performance assessments (SPAs) effectively and encouraging collaboration across government agencies. The argument is tested on a nationally representative panel of townships in precoup Myanmar. Facilitation workshops were conducted in 20 randomly assigned townships, bringing together officials from multiple government agencies and introducing them to the results of the Myanmar Business Environment Index (MBEI), an SPA that scored a panel of 60 townships on 92 governance indicators. Results show that businesses in townships where officials attended facilitation workshops ranked their townships twice as high as the businesses in the control group. Variation in MBEI improvements was moderated by the degree of decentralization in bureaucratic agencies
Bureaucracy · Business · Corporate governance · Decentralization · Economic growth · Economics · Facilitation · Government (linguistics · Index (typography · Panel data · Political science · Politics · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Finance · International Development and Aid · Local Government Finance and Decentralization · Public Administration
Incentives and Organizations in the Public Sector
Organizational Learning
Cem
How Do Voters Respond to Information? Evidence from a Randomized Campaign
Good Government in the Tropics
Does Information Lead to More Active Citizenship? Evidence from an Education Intervention in Rural Kenya
Getting institutions right
The Question of Participation
Public Sector Governance Reform and the Motivation of Street‐Level Bureaucrats in Developing Countries
First Movers, Democratization and Unilateral Concessions
A Race to the Top? The Aid Transparency Index and the Social Power of Global Performance Indicators
Does the Meeting Style Matter? The Effects of Exposure to Participatory and Deliberative School Board Meetings
Decentralization Without Democracy
Local Embeddedness and Bureaucratic Performance
The Power of Ranking
Introduction
When Does Information Influence Voters? The Joint Importance of Salience and Coordination
Madison in Baghdad
Greater Expectations
Norms versus Action
Bureaucracy and Service Delivery
Decentralization of Governance and Development
Ethnic Parties in New Democracies
Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Development
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |