Hierarchy and Information
What determines the distribution of information acquired within the hierarchy of a public organization? Without market processes, the generation and absorption of information in bureaucracy relies on individual actors undertaking costly action to a...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/474061541787560854/Hierarchy-and-Information http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30850 |
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okr-10986-308502021-12-27T12:23:28Z Hierarchy and Information Rogger, Daniel Somani, Ravi INFORMATION BUREAUCRACY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DECENTRALIZATION OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE What determines the distribution of information acquired within the hierarchy of a public organization? Without market processes, the generation and absorption of information in bureaucracy relies on individual actors undertaking costly action to acquire it. This paper reports on comparisons between individual-level claims by public officials in the Government of Ethiopia regarding the characteristics of local constituents they serve and objective benchmark data. Public officials make large errors about their constituents' characteristics. The errors of 49 percent of public officials are at least 50 percent of the underlying benchmark data. Given public officials' stated reliance on this information to make public policy decisions, such mistakes imply a substantial misallocation of public resources. The results are consistent with classic theoretical predictions related to the incentives that determine information acquisition in hierarchies, such as de facto control over decision making and an organizational culture of valuing operational information. A field experiment implies that these incentives mediate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving the information of public-sector agents. 2018-11-12T21:40:19Z 2018-11-12T21:40:19Z 2018-11 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/474061541787560854/Hierarchy-and-Information http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30850 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8644 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Ethiopia |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
INFORMATION BUREAUCRACY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DECENTRALIZATION OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE |
| spellingShingle |
INFORMATION BUREAUCRACY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DECENTRALIZATION OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Rogger, Daniel Somani, Ravi Hierarchy and Information |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Ethiopia |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8644 |
| description |
What determines the distribution of
information acquired within the hierarchy of a public
organization? Without market processes, the generation and
absorption of information in bureaucracy relies on
individual actors undertaking costly action to acquire it.
This paper reports on comparisons between individual-level
claims by public officials in the Government of Ethiopia
regarding the characteristics of local constituents they
serve and objective benchmark data. Public officials make
large errors about their constituents' characteristics.
The errors of 49 percent of public officials are at least 50
percent of the underlying benchmark data. Given public
officials' stated reliance on this information to make
public policy decisions, such mistakes imply a substantial
misallocation of public resources. The results are
consistent with classic theoretical predictions related to
the incentives that determine information acquisition in
hierarchies, such as de facto control over decision making
and an organizational culture of valuing operational
information. A field experiment implies that these
incentives mediate the effectiveness of interventions aimed
at improving the information of public-sector agents. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Rogger, Daniel Somani, Ravi |
| author_facet |
Rogger, Daniel Somani, Ravi |
| author_sort |
Rogger, Daniel |
| title |
Hierarchy and Information |
| title_short |
Hierarchy and Information |
| title_full |
Hierarchy and Information |
| title_fullStr |
Hierarchy and Information |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Hierarchy and Information |
| title_sort |
hierarchy and information |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/474061541787560854/Hierarchy-and-Information http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30850 |
| _version_ |
1764473013913255936 |