Setting Reasonable Performance Targets for Public Service Delivery
Reaching agreement on a reasonable performance target is a challenge, with costs associated with getting it wrong. Attention in the literature has focused on the potential negative effects of gaming or of creaming. However, even if there is no gami...
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/03/17453225/setting-reasonable-performance-targets-public-service-delivery http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13178 |
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okr-10986-13178 |
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| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
ACHIEVEMENT DATA ACHIEVEMENT SCORES ACHIEVEMENT TESTS ADJUSTMENT ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS ADULTS ATTENTION ATTRIBUTION AVERAGE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL BASIC EDUCATION CALL CLASSROOMS COMPETITIVENESS CONTINUING EDUCATION CONTINUOUS LEARNING DECISION MAKING DEMONSTRATION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION AUTHORITIES EDUCATION DATA EDUCATION QUALITY EDUCATION SECTOR EDUCATION STATISTICS EDUCATION TARGETS EDUCATIONAL DISPARITIES EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ELEMENTARY EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT ENTERPRISE SURVEYS ENTREPRENEURSHIP GENDER GENERAL PUBLIC ID ILLITERACY INCENTIVES FOR TEACHERS INNOVATION INTELLIGENCE INTERFACE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS INTERVENTIONS JOB OPPORTUNITIES JOB TRAINING LEARNING LEVEL OF ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS OF EDUCATION LITERACY LITERACY LEVELS LITERATURE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS MANUFACTURING NUMBER OF STUDENTS OPEN ACCESS PAPERS PERFORMANCE INDICATOR PERFORMANCE MEASURE PRIVATE INVESTMENT PRIVATE SECTOR PRODUCTIVITY PROFICIENCY QUALITY EDUCATION QUALITY OF EDUCATION QUALITY OF LIFE RATE OF STUDENTS RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS RESEARCHERS RESULTS SANITATION SCHOOL DAY SCHOOL EDUCATION SCHOOL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL PARTICIPATION SCHOOL PERFORMANCE SCHOOL STUDENTS SCHOOL SYSTEM SCHOOLING SCHOOLS SECONDARY EDUCATION SHOW HOW SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SOFTWARE COMPONENTS STATE SCHOOLS STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT STUDENT PERFORMANCE SUPERVISION TARGETS TEACHER TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS TEACHERS TEACHING TEACHING METHODS TEACHING SKILLS TEST SCORES TRAINING CENTERS TRAINING PROGRAMS TRANSPORT SYSTEM UNIVERSITIES UNIVERSITY DEGREES USERS USES WEB WORKERS |
| spellingShingle |
ACHIEVEMENT DATA ACHIEVEMENT SCORES ACHIEVEMENT TESTS ADJUSTMENT ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS ADULTS ATTENTION ATTRIBUTION AVERAGE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL BASIC EDUCATION CALL CLASSROOMS COMPETITIVENESS CONTINUING EDUCATION CONTINUOUS LEARNING DECISION MAKING DEMONSTRATION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION AUTHORITIES EDUCATION DATA EDUCATION QUALITY EDUCATION SECTOR EDUCATION STATISTICS EDUCATION TARGETS EDUCATIONAL DISPARITIES EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ELEMENTARY EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT ENTERPRISE SURVEYS ENTREPRENEURSHIP GENDER GENERAL PUBLIC ID ILLITERACY INCENTIVES FOR TEACHERS INNOVATION INTELLIGENCE INTERFACE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS INTERVENTIONS JOB OPPORTUNITIES JOB TRAINING LEARNING LEVEL OF ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS OF EDUCATION LITERACY LITERACY LEVELS LITERATURE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS MANUFACTURING NUMBER OF STUDENTS OPEN ACCESS PAPERS PERFORMANCE INDICATOR PERFORMANCE MEASURE PRIVATE INVESTMENT PRIVATE SECTOR PRODUCTIVITY PROFICIENCY QUALITY EDUCATION QUALITY OF EDUCATION QUALITY OF LIFE RATE OF STUDENTS RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS RESEARCHERS RESULTS SANITATION SCHOOL DAY SCHOOL EDUCATION SCHOOL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL PARTICIPATION SCHOOL PERFORMANCE SCHOOL STUDENTS SCHOOL SYSTEM SCHOOLING SCHOOLS SECONDARY EDUCATION SHOW HOW SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SOFTWARE COMPONENTS STATE SCHOOLS STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT STUDENT PERFORMANCE SUPERVISION TARGETS TEACHER TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS TEACHERS TEACHING TEACHING METHODS TEACHING SKILLS TEST SCORES TRAINING CENTERS TRAINING PROGRAMS TRANSPORT SYSTEM UNIVERSITIES UNIVERSITY DEGREES USERS USES WEB WORKERS Newman, John L. Azevedo, João Pedro Setting Reasonable Performance Targets for Public Service Delivery |
| geographic_facet |
Latin America & Caribbean Brazil |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6385 |
| description |
Reaching agreement on a reasonable
performance target is a challenge, with costs associated
with getting it wrong. Attention in the literature has
focused on the potential negative effects of gaming or of
creaming. However, even if there is no gaming or creaming
taking place, there can still be costs associated with
setting a level of the performance target that is either too
low or too high. On the one hand, if the negotiated
performance target is too low, there is a strong risk that
the target would be met without any change in behavior or
performance from what would have been realized without a
performance management system. In that case, there would be
no benefit -- only the cost of covering the administrative
costs associated with developing the monitoring and
management systems. On the other hand, if the negotiated
performance target is too high, there could also be
significant costs. The exact nature of the costs depends on
which one of two unattractive options the principal chooses
to follow once it becomes apparent that the performance
targets were set unrealistically high. If the principal
chooses simply to waive any possible repercussions for the
agents for not meeting the performance targets, this can
undermine the credibility of the system. If the principal
insists on holding agents to meeting the performance targets
-- no matter how unrealistic they were -- this can breed
resentment and adversely affect future productivity. This
paper considers some approaches to target setting that have
been used in the literature and proposes an approach based
on the use of quantile regressions to construct a
Characteristic Adjusted Performance distribution of
performance to guide the selection of targets. The paper
then presents two concrete examples of applications of this
approach related to the setting of targets on School Test
Scores and Improvement in Homicide rates in Police Districts
in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
| author |
Newman, John L. Azevedo, João Pedro |
| author_facet |
Newman, John L. Azevedo, João Pedro |
| author_sort |
Newman, John L. |
| title |
Setting Reasonable Performance Targets for Public Service Delivery |
| title_short |
Setting Reasonable Performance Targets for Public Service Delivery |
| title_full |
Setting Reasonable Performance Targets for Public Service Delivery |
| title_fullStr |
Setting Reasonable Performance Targets for Public Service Delivery |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Setting Reasonable Performance Targets for Public Service Delivery |
| title_sort |
setting reasonable performance targets for public service delivery |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/03/17453225/setting-reasonable-performance-targets-public-service-delivery http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13178 |
| _version_ |
1764422899325730816 |
| spelling |
okr-10986-131782021-04-23T14:03:07Z Setting Reasonable Performance Targets for Public Service Delivery Newman, John L. Azevedo, João Pedro ACHIEVEMENT DATA ACHIEVEMENT SCORES ACHIEVEMENT TESTS ADJUSTMENT ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS ADULTS ATTENTION ATTRIBUTION AVERAGE EDUCATIONAL LEVEL BASIC EDUCATION CALL CLASSROOMS COMPETITIVENESS CONTINUING EDUCATION CONTINUOUS LEARNING DECISION MAKING DEMONSTRATION ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION AUTHORITIES EDUCATION DATA EDUCATION QUALITY EDUCATION SECTOR EDUCATION STATISTICS EDUCATION TARGETS EDUCATIONAL DISPARITIES EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ELEMENTARY EDUCATION EMPLOYMENT ENTERPRISE SURVEYS ENTREPRENEURSHIP GENDER GENERAL PUBLIC ID ILLITERACY INCENTIVES FOR TEACHERS INNOVATION INTELLIGENCE INTERFACE INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS INTERVENTIONS JOB OPPORTUNITIES JOB TRAINING LEARNING LEVEL OF ACHIEVEMENT LEVELS OF EDUCATION LITERACY LITERACY LEVELS LITERATURE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS MANUFACTURING NUMBER OF STUDENTS OPEN ACCESS PAPERS PDF PERFORMANCE INDICATOR PERFORMANCE MEASURE PRIVATE INVESTMENT PRIVATE SECTOR PRODUCTIVITY PROFICIENCY QUALITY EDUCATION QUALITY OF EDUCATION QUALITY OF LIFE RATE OF STUDENTS RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS RESEARCHERS RESULTS SANITATION SCHOOL DAY SCHOOL EDUCATION SCHOOL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL PARTICIPATION SCHOOL PERFORMANCE SCHOOL STUDENTS SCHOOL SYSTEM SCHOOLING SCHOOLS SECONDARY EDUCATION SHOW HOW SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SOFTWARE COMPONENTS STATE SCHOOLS STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT STUDENT PERFORMANCE SUPERVISION TARGETS TEACHER TEACHER QUALIFICATIONS TEACHERS TEACHING TEACHING METHODS TEACHING SKILLS TEST SCORES TRAINING CENTERS TRAINING PROGRAMS TRANSPORT SYSTEM UNIVERSITIES UNIVERSITY DEGREES USERS USES WEB WORKERS Reaching agreement on a reasonable performance target is a challenge, with costs associated with getting it wrong. Attention in the literature has focused on the potential negative effects of gaming or of creaming. However, even if there is no gaming or creaming taking place, there can still be costs associated with setting a level of the performance target that is either too low or too high. On the one hand, if the negotiated performance target is too low, there is a strong risk that the target would be met without any change in behavior or performance from what would have been realized without a performance management system. In that case, there would be no benefit -- only the cost of covering the administrative costs associated with developing the monitoring and management systems. On the other hand, if the negotiated performance target is too high, there could also be significant costs. The exact nature of the costs depends on which one of two unattractive options the principal chooses to follow once it becomes apparent that the performance targets were set unrealistically high. If the principal chooses simply to waive any possible repercussions for the agents for not meeting the performance targets, this can undermine the credibility of the system. If the principal insists on holding agents to meeting the performance targets -- no matter how unrealistic they were -- this can breed resentment and adversely affect future productivity. This paper considers some approaches to target setting that have been used in the literature and proposes an approach based on the use of quantile regressions to construct a Characteristic Adjusted Performance distribution of performance to guide the selection of targets. The paper then presents two concrete examples of applications of this approach related to the setting of targets on School Test Scores and Improvement in Homicide rates in Police Districts in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. 2013-04-12T16:43:08Z 2013-04-12T16:43:08Z 2013-03 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/03/17453225/setting-reasonable-performance-targets-public-service-delivery http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13178 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 6385 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Latin America & Caribbean Brazil |