Public sector performance, prestige and promotion

Willmore, Larry (2005): Public sector performance, prestige and promotion. Published in: World Public Sector Report 2005 (2005): pp. 1-33.

Abstract

Using cross-country data for 51 countries, including 23 in Africa, the author controls for differences in per capita income and measures the effect of structural variables on a number of outcomes, including the quality, integrity and prestige of public service. He finds merit-based recruitment and promotion to have a positive, independent effect on the quality and the integrity, but not the prestige, of public sector bureaucracies. Better remuneration of high officials increases the quality, integrity and - for non-African countries - the prestige of public sector employment. New Public Management, measured indirectly as the extent to which high officials intersperse private and public sector careers, has no apparent effect on quality or integrity, but it is associated with low prestige of public service, making it difficult to recruit and retain talented professionals. This was prepared as a background paper for the World Public Sector Report 2005 (United Nations, New York, Sales No. E.05.II.H.5).

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: civil service, public sector productivity, corruption
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H8 - Miscellaneous Issues > H83 - Public Administration ; Public Sector Accounting and Audits; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J45 - Public Sector Labor Markets

References

Bates, Robert H. and others (2003). Political instability task force report: phase IV findings. McLean, VA: Science Applications InternationalCorporation.

Rauch, James E. and Peter Evans (2000). Bureaucratic structure and bureaucratic performance in less developed countries. Journal of Public Economics, vol. 75, No. 1 (January), pp. 49-71.

Evans, Peter and James E. Rauch (1999). Bureaucracy and growth: a cross-national analysis of the effects of “Weberian” state structures on economic growth. American Sociological Review, vol. 64, no. 5 (October).

Court, Julius, Petra Kristen and Beatrice Weder (1999). Bureaucratic structure and performance: first Africa survey results (draft of 20 December). Available from http://www.unu.edu/hq/academic/Pg_area4/pdf/unu-research.pdf

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2002). Public service as an employer of choice. Paris: OECD. Available from http://www.oecd.org/document/10/0,2340,en_2649_201185_2095050_1_1_1_1,00.html

Evans, Peter and James E. Rauch (1999). Bureaucracy and growth: a cross-national analysis of the effects of “Weberian” state structures on economic growth. American Sociological Review, vol. 64, no. 5 (October).

Levy, Marc A. and Thomas M. Parris (2003). State Capacity Survey Database, version 2. McLean, VA: Science Applications International Corporation