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Deservingness and street-level decision-making. Two survey experiments on the use of discretion in the public sector

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  • Lundin, Martin

    (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy)

  • Häggblom, Josefin

    (IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy)

Abstract

When prioritising among clients, street-level bureaucrats may partly base their decisions on an assessment of the extent to which clients are deserving of help. We examine the impact of two “deservingness cues” on street-level decisions: the extent to which clients seem to need help and the extent to which clients appear to have responsibility for their neediness. The analysis is based on survey experiments with Swedish employment officers. We find that caseworkers devote more working time to jobseekers in greater need, but jobseekers in greater need have no increased likelihood of receiving a training program. In contrast, clients with greater responsibility for their neediness have a lower probability of receiving training, but caseworkers allocate just as much work time to these clients as they do to others. Thus, we confirm that client deservingness is important but qualify this conclusion along two dimensions. First, different cues of deservingness have different impacts for one and the same decision. Se cond, all types of decisions are not affected in the same way

Suggested Citation

  • Lundin, Martin & Häggblom, Josefin, 2022. "Deservingness and street-level decision-making. Two survey experiments on the use of discretion in the public sector," Working Paper Series 2022:17, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2022_017
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stefanie Behncke & Markus Frölich & Michael Lechner, 2010. "A Caseworker Like Me - Does The Similarity Between The Unemployed and Their Caseworkers Increase Job Placements?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(549), pages 1430-1459, December.
    2. Amelie Schiprowski, 2020. "The Role of Caseworkers in Unemployment Insurance: Evidence from Unplanned Absences," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(4), pages 1189-1225.
    3. MacKinnon, James G. & Webb, Matthew D., 2020. "Randomization inference for difference-in-differences with few treated clusters," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 218(2), pages 435-450.
    4. Daniel Aaronson & Lisa Barrow & William Sander, 2007. "Teachers and Student Achievement in the Chicago Public High Schools," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(1), pages 95-135.
    5. Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 175-214.
    6. Hainmueller, Jens & Hopkins, Daniel J. & Yamamoto, Teppei, 2014. "Causal Inference in Conjoint Analysis: Understanding Multidimensional Choices via Stated Preference Experiments," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 1-30, January.
    7. Jonah E. Rockoff, 2004. "The Impact of Individual Teachers on Student Achievement: Evidence from Panel Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(2), pages 247-252, May.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Street-level bureaucracy; Client deservingness; Survey experiment; Labor market policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General

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