A booming literature has argued that mission-based motives are a central feature of mission-oriented labor markets. This paper shifts the focus to task-based motivation and finds that it yields significantly more effort than mission-based motivation. Moreover, in the presence of significant task...

Merit-based selection of bureaucrats is central to state capacity building, yet rare in developing countries. Most executives instead favor patronage -political discretion- in public employment. This paper proposes and tests an original theory to explain when executives forsake patronage for...

Am Beispiel der Schweizer Justizinitiative zeigen wir auf, dass eine qualifizierte Losauswahl keineswegs irrational ist, sondern zu einer Rationalität auf einer übergeordneten, institutionellen Ebene führen kann. Sie erhöht die Wahrscheinlichkeit, ausgezeichnete Kandidierende für eine...