Personalities and Public Sector Performance

Evidence from a Health Experiment in Pakistan

Bibliographic Data

ID4972298
AuthorsMichael Callen (0000-0002-8408-1404, London School of Economics and Political Science), Saad Gulzar (0000-0002-2071-5690, Princeton University), Ali Hasanain (0000-0001-5250-900X, Lahore University of Management Sciences), Muhammad Yasir Khan (0000-0002-6922-8850, University of Pittsburgh), Arman Rezaee (0000-0003-0779-9401, University of California, Davis)
Year2025
Volume73
Issue3
Pages1439-1474
Publication date2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomic Development and Cultural Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0079 • E-ISSN: 1539-2988
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/731673
OpenAlexW3121961952
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited45

This paper presents evidence that selecting better people to work in government and improving their incentives are complements in improving government effectiveness. To do so, this paper combines a policy that improved incentives for health service delivery in Punjab, Pakistan, with data on health worker personalities. We present three key results. First, government doctors with higher personality scores perform better, even under status quo incentives. Second, health inspectors with higher personality scores exhibit larger treatment responses when incentives are reformed. Last, senior health officials with higher personality scores respond more to data on staff absence by compelling better subsequent attendance

Attendance · Big Five personality traits · Context (archaeology) · Geography · Personality · Personality psychology · Political science · Public health · Public relations · Public sector · Relevance (law) · Scale (ratio) · Work (physics) · Applied Psychology · Engineering · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Islamic Finance and Banking Studies · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Social Psychology

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