TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Gauri, Varun
AU  - Jamison, Julian C.
AU  - Mazar, Nina
AU  - Ozier, Owen
        TI  - Motivating Bureaucrats through Social Recognition: External Validity — A Tale of Two States
        PY  - 2019/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 12251
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp12251
        AB  - Bureaucratic performance is a crucial determinant of economic growth, but little real-world evidence exists on how to improve it, especially in resource-constrained settings. We conducted a field experiment of a social recognition intervention to improve record keeping in health facilities in two Nigerian states, replicating the intervention - implemented by a single organization - on bureaucrats performing identical tasks. Social recognition improved performance in one state but had no effect in the other, highlighting both the potential benefits and also the sometimes-limited generalizability of behavioral interventions. Furthermore, differences in facility-level observables did not explain cross-state differences in impacts, suggesting that it may often be difficult to predict external validity.
        KW  - behavioral insights
KW  - bureaucracy
KW  - external validity
KW  - RCT
KW  - nudges
KW  - healthcare
        ER  -