Information Technology and Provision of National Identification Cards by the Bolivian Police : Evidence from Two Randomized Natural Field Experiments
This paper investigates the potential of information technology to improve public service delivery and empower citizens. The investigation uses two randomized natural experiments in the renewal of national identification cards by the Bolivian Polic...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/447061496345939554/Information-technology-and-provision-of-national-identification-cards-by-the-Bolivian-police-evidence-from-two-randomized-natural-field-experiments http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26955 |
| Summary: | This paper investigates the potential of
information technology to improve public service delivery
and empower citizens. The investigation uses two randomized
natural experiments in the renewal of national
identification cards by the Bolivian Police. The first
experiment arises from the random assignment of police
officers and applicants to a manual or digital renewal
process, which is identical in all other aspects. The second
experiment arises from technical failures in the digital
renewal process, which allow police officers to change from
the digital to the manual renewal process randomly across
renewal days. The efficiency of public service delivery is
measured in renewal success rates (which average to a
strikingly low rate of 72 percent in the sample) and the
time it takes to renew an identification card. The findings
show that applicants who were randomly assigned to the
digital renewal process were on average 12 percentage points
more likely to complete it, compared with those who were
randomly assigned to the manual process. Further, successful
applicants who were randomly assigned to the digital process
took on average 31 percent less time to complete the
process, compared with those who were randomly assigned to
the manual process. The investigation finds that information
technology significantly lowers barriers to accessing
national identification cards, and promotes more equitable
provision across the population. The findings suggest that
information technology might achieve these goals by
introducing efficiencies (such as reducing administrative
shortcomings and transaction costs) and limiting the
exercise of discretion by police officers in the renewal process. |
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