How to increase citizen coproduction: replication and extension of existing research

ABSTRACT

The value of coproduction—the joint productive efforts by regular producers, such as teachers, and consumer producers, such as parents, in helping children to learn—has been recognized for some time. However, strong empirical evidence of how these benefits can be achieved is scarce, and recent research has found mixed results. A new randomized field trial replicates elements of previous studies and extends them by using an additional age-appropriate outcome measure. Methodologically, the results illustrate the challenges of carrying out replication studies because when target groups change, outcome measures also often change. Substantially, the findings suggest that a government initiative providing parents with materials and information to enhance parents’ coproduction efforts can be extended to a broader target group of parents. Together, the findings illustrate how findings from single studies should be generalized with caution and the value of working systematically with replications and extensions.

Funding

This work was supported by TrygFonden.

Notes

1 Response categories: Never, once a month, once a week, 2–3 times per week, 4–5 times per week, every day, or do not know. “Do not know” responses are excluded from the analysis.

2 The variable ranges from 1 to 6, and the estimate is 0.131. The mean for the control group is 4.139.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simon Calmar Andersen

Simon Calmar Andersen ([email protected]) is a professor at the Department of Political Science and director of TrygFonden’s Centre for Child Research, Aarhus University. His research examines the effect of public administration on organizational performance, especially within education. He has published his work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and International Public Management Journal, among others. He serves on the Advisory Research Board of the Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI) and the Laboratory of Public Policy and Management at City University, Hong Kong.

Helena Skyt Nielsen

Helena Skyt Nielsen ([email protected]) is a professor at the Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University. Her research concerns labor, education, and family economics. She has published her work in journals such as Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Economic Journal, Journal of Human Resources, and Journal of the European Economic Association. Among other things, she serves as a Director of Graduate Studies and is a member of the Independent Research Fund Denmark/Social Sciences.

Mette Kjærgaard Thomsen

Mette Kjærgaard Thomsen ([email protected]) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Management at University of Southern Denmark. Her current research interests include citizen coproduction of public services, service professionals’ response to citizen coproduction, and administrative burdens associated with coproduction tasks.