What characteristics of performance information matter to citizens? Evidence from a survey experiment in South Korea

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effects of multiple types of performance information on citizens’ performance evaluations of the energy voucher programme in South Korea, using an online survey experiment. We also investigate the moderating effect of political ideology in analysing citizens’ performance information use. Our results reveal that the impact of performance information is more positive and stronger when presented in the form of the output than the outcome of the energy voucher programme. Contrary to the implicit assumption in the literature, reporting output information rather than outcome information tends to increase citizens’ positive evaluation of programme performance. We also find that citizens make reference-dependent decisions in their judgement of public services. Our study highlights the heterogeneous effects of each reference point on citizens’ perceived performance, depending on the type of performance information.

KEYWORDS:

• Performance information
• citizens
• survey experiment
• energy voucher programme
• South korea

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Outputs means ‘what the public sector does’, whereas outcomes means ‘the effects that have been caused directly and indirectly by the outputs’ (Rajala et al., 2018, 7).

2. The overall response rate to online surveys is relatively low. It is even lower when we rely on non-probability online panels, as most experimental studies do (Dillman et al., 2014; Pedersen & Nielsen, 2016; Ricucci, Van Ryzin, & Li, 2016).

3. Previous literature found that performance information had a stronger impact on citizens’ attitudes and perceptions when provided with cost information (Baekgaard, 2015; Grosso et al., 2017). Thus, we included the cost information in all scenarios.

4. (Meier et al., 2017) emphasize the role of context in the comparative perspective. They exemplify the context as several elements, ranging from political contexts to environmental or internal contexts.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Kyung Hee University Future Energy Policy Institute .

Notes on contributors

Yujin Choi

Yujin Choi is an associate professor of public administration at Ewha Womans University. She received her Ph.D. in public administration from Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Her current research interests include collaborative public management and performance management.