Influencing Citizen Coproduction by Sending Encouragement and Advice: A Field Experiment

ABSTRACT

The outcomes of public services, such as education, health care, and safety, are improved considerably when citizens coproduce—that is, contribute to public service provision. Governments are therefore seeking different ways to enhance citizen coproduction. Yet, empirical studies examining the effect of different government strategies to enhance citizen coproduction remain scarce and face problems of endogeneity. In this study, we examine the effect on citizen coproduction of a simple government initiative sending information material containing encouragement and advice to citizens—an often-applied strategy to enhance citizen participation. We use a field experiment on educational services (n > 1,400) to handle endogeneity problems and at the same time examine the effect in an actual public administration setting. This unique design enables us to interpret the results as reflecting causal effects of a government initiative. Using different outcome measures, we find limited effects on citizen coproduction.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Søren Serritzlew, Simon Calmar Andersen, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on previous versions of this article. Moreover, we thank Maiken Kjær Milthers and Line Scott Nesbit for excellent research assistance. Maiken and Line were responsible for data collection, and they contributed during this process with many excellent ideas. They also provided very valuable assistance in developing the booklet. The authors would also like to thank the municipality of Aarhus for an excellent partnership and for great openness and flexibility. We received help and good will from many at the Department of Children and Young People. Special thanks to Catharina Damgaard, Jens Møller Hald, Dennis Møller Hansen, and Morten Hjortskov Larsen. Finally, thanks to Solveig Gaarsmand from the National Association of School Parents for valuable help in developing the booklet.

Notes

The experiment has also been used (for other purposes) in Nesbit and Milthers (2012), Jakobsen and Serritzlew (forthcoming) and Jakobsen and Thomsen (2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mette Kjærgaard Thomsen

Mette Kjærgaard Thomsen ([email protected]) is a doctoral student at the Department of Political Science and Government at Aarhus University. She is currently working on her PhD thesis on the effect of different types of government initiatives on citizen input to coproduction.

Morten Jakobsen

Morten Jakobsen ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and Government at Aarhus University. His research interests include coproduction of public services, the relationship between public administration and citizens, public employees, information and communication in bureaucracy, and various forms of political participation.