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Benchmarks and Citizen Judgments of Local Government Performance: Findings from a survey experiment

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  • Étienne Charbonneau
  • Gregg G. Van Ryzin

Abstract

Government agencies can provide various benchmarks when reporting their performance to citizens, but not much is known about how citizens understand and respond to benchmarking information. Thus, this study aims to test what performance benchmarks appear most salient and persuasive to citizens. We conducted an online survey experiment in which n =595 respondents were randomized to different benchmarking information concerning fourth-grade reading proficiency of an elementary school. Our findings suggest that better school performance relative to the overall state average influenced respondents' ratings more than did performance relative to last year or similar schools. Improvement over last year, moreover, appears to be the least influential benchmark. The implication is that citizens find broad, comparative benchmarks to be the most persuasive and view reflexive benchmarks as less impressive, although confirmation of this conclusion is needed because of limitations in the design of the experiment.

Suggested Citation

  • Étienne Charbonneau & Gregg G. Van Ryzin, 2015. "Benchmarks and Citizen Judgments of Local Government Performance: Findings from a survey experiment," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 288-304, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:17:y:2015:i:2:p:288-304
    DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2013.798027
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    Cited by:

    1. Carolyn‐Dung Thi Thanh Tran & Brian Dollery, 2021. "All in the Mind: Citizen Satisfaction and Financial Performance in the Victorian Local Government System," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 31(1), pages 51-64, March.
    2. Peter Rasmussen Damgaard & Poul A. Nielsen, 2020. "Does performance disclosure affect user satisfaction, voice, and exit? Experimental evidence from service users," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 3(2).
    3. Amanda Rutherford & Thomas Rabovsky & Megan Darnley, 2021. "Compared to whom? Social and historical reference points and performance appraisals by managers, students, and the general public," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 4(1).

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