IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/qfykb.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Burdens, Sludge, Ordeals, Red Tape, Oh My! A User’s Guide to the Study of Frictions

Author

Listed:
  • Madsen, Jonas Krogh
  • Mikkelsen, Kim Sass
  • Moynihan, Donald

Abstract

Recent years has seen dramatic growth to the study of frictions that individuals experience, especially in their interactions with the public sector, creating both the potential for new research opportunities and conceptual confusion. We seek to head off the latter by providing, in one place, a definition, description of the development, and comparison of four dominant conceptions of frictions: ordeal mechanisms, red tape, administrative burden, and sludge. In particular, we discuss the four concepts' definition and use in terms of their objectivity, distributive effects, object and domain, and deliberate design. The paper helps researchers to understand the overlap and distinctions between these concepts, and the role of public administration in these different traditions. Comparisons of the different approaches' thinking also suggest opportunities for mutual learning.

Suggested Citation

  • Madsen, Jonas Krogh & Mikkelsen, Kim Sass & Moynihan, Donald, 2020. "Burdens, Sludge, Ordeals, Red Tape, Oh My! A User’s Guide to the Study of Frictions," SocArXiv qfykb, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:qfykb
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/qfykb
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5fecd0fc1e6d9702f92fb12e/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/qfykb?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yasenov, Vasil & Hotard, Michael & Lawrence, Duncan & Hainmueller, Jens & Laitin, David, 2019. "Standardizing the Fee Waiver Application Increased Naturalization Rates of Low-Income Immigrants," OSF Preprints acmdw, Center for Open Science.
    2. Abby Alpert & William N Evans & Ethan M J Lieber & David Powell, 2023. "Origins of the Opioid Crisis and its Enduring Impacts," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(2), pages 1139-1179.
    3. Wesley Kaufmann & Lars Tummers, 2017. "The negative effect of red tape on procedural satisfaction," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(9), pages 1311-1327, October.
    4. Manasi Deshpande & Yue Li, 2019. "Who Is Screened Out? Application Costs and the Targeting of Disability Programs," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 213-248, November.
    5. Zeckhauser, Richard, 2021. "Strategic sorting: the role of ordeals in health care," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 64-81, March.
    6. Wesley Kaufmann & Mary K. Feeney, 2012. "Objective Formalization, Perceived Formalization and Perceived Red Tape," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(8), pages 1195-1214, January.
    7. Braconnier, Céline & Dormagen, Jean-Yves & Pons, Vincent, 2017. "Voter Registration Costs and Disenfranchisement: Experimental Evidence from France," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(3), pages 584-604, August.
    8. Vivi Alatas & Abhijit Banerjee & Rema Hanna & Benjamin A. Olken & Ririn Purnamasari & Matthew Wai-Poi, 2016. "Self-Targeting: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(2), pages 371-427.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Na Liu & Futie Song, 2021. "Marginal Abatement Cost of Carbon Emissions under Different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laura Castell & Marc Gurgand & Clément Imbert & Todor Tochev, 2024. "Take-up of Social Benefits: Experimental Evidence from France," Institut des Politiques Publiques halshs-04720989, HAL.
    2. Manasi Deshpande & Yue Li, 2019. "Who Is Screened Out? Application Costs and the Targeting of Disability Programs," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 213-248, November.
    3. Narayan, Ayushi, 2020. "Does simplifying the college financial aid process matter?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. Takanori Ida & Takunori Ishihara & Koichiro Ito & Daido Kido & Toru Kitagawa & Shosei Sakaguchi & Shusaku Sasaki, 2021. "Paternalism, Autonomy, or Both? Experimental Evidence from Energy Saving Programs," Papers 2112.09850, arXiv.org.
    5. Sadoff, Sally & Samek, Anya, 2019. "The effect of recipient contribution requirements on support for social programs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 1-16.
    6. Nick Arnosti & Peng Shi, 2020. "Design of Lotteries and Wait-Lists for Affordable Housing Allocation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(6), pages 2291-2307, June.
    7. Cody Cook & Pearl Z. Li & Ariel J. Binder, 2023. "Where to Build Affordable Housing? Evaluating the Tradeoffs of Location," Working Papers 23-62, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. Hilary W. Hoynes & Nicole Maestas & Alexander Strand, 2022. "Legal Representation in Disability Claims," NBER Working Papers 29871, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Bas Scheer & Wiljan van den Berge & Maarten Goos & Alan Manning & Anna Salomons, 2022. "Alternative Work Arrangements and Worker Outcomes: Evidence from Payrolling," CPB Discussion Paper 435, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    10. Gopi Shah Goda & Emilie Jackson & Lauren Hersch Nicholas & Sarah See Stith, 2023. "The impact of Covid-19 on older workers’ employment and Social Security spillovers," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 813-846, April.
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7p9a2ge1op95oao5se2oc4ann7 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. León, Gianmarco, 2017. "Turnout, political preferences and information: Experimental evidence from Peru," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 56-71.
    13. repec:ags:aaea22:335457 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Julia Cage & Edgard Dewitte, 2021. "It Takes Money to Make MPs: Evidence from 150 Years of British Campaign Spending," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03384143, HAL.
    15. Guignet, Dennis & Jenkins, Robin R. & Belke, James & Mason, Henry, 2023. "The property value impacts of industrial chemical accidents," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    16. Han, Yi & Wu, Mingqin, 2024. "Inter-regional barriers and economic growth: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    17. Garrett Anstreicher, 2021. "Does increasing health care access reduce disability insurance caseloads? Evidence from the rural United States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 786-802, April.
    18. Tatiana Homonoff & Jason Somerville, 2021. "Program Recertification Costs: Evidence from SNAP," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 271-298, November.
    19. Horrigan, John B. & Whitacre, Brian E. & Galperin, Hernan, 2024. "Understanding uptake in demand-side broadband subsidy programs: The affordable connectivity program case," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8).
    20. Cairo, Sofie & Mahlstedt, Robert, 2021. "Transparency of the Welfare System and Labor Market Outcomes of Unemployed Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 14940, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Björkegren, Daniel & Karaca, Burak Ceyhun, 2022. "Network adoption subsidies: A digital evaluation of a rural mobile phone program in Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    22. Christopher J. O'Leary & Dallas Oberlee & Gabrielle Pepin, 2020. "Nudges to Increase Completion of Welfare Applications: Experimental Evidence from Michigan," Upjohn Working Papers 20-336, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:qfykb. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.