National statistical systems are the enterprises tasked with collecting, validating and reporting societal attributes. These data serve many purposes – they allow governments to improve services, economic actors to traverse markets, and academics to assess social theories. National statistical...

Machine learning methods have gained a great deal of popularity in recent years amongpublic administration scholars and practitioners. These techniques open the door tothe analysis of text, image and other types of data that allow us to test foundationaltheories of public administration and to...

We assess the link between a program's volunteer support and state social capital in the case of the joint implementation of the federal Long-Term Care (LTC) Ombudsman Program by state and federal authorities. This program, which is designed to prevent elder abuse and ensure quality care in...

Numerous recent studies contend that public health agencies in the U.S. are in a state of turmoil because their organizational form causes them to take on conflicting mandates. One reason is the tradeoff in design between creating stand-alone agencies for health and environment, and creating...

The purpose of this paper is to test the direct effect of the structure of the civil service on public perceptions of corruption. Numerous studies suggest a relationship between the design of civil service systems and corruption, but few studies actually test this theoretical link. We...

Political reorganizations like that of the National Performance Review in the United States fundamentally alter hierarchical relations within public agencies. This study includes a set of formal exercises to examine two logical consequences of reinvention: the increased likelihood of...

Pure incentive schemes rely on agent self-interest, rather than more coercive control, to motivate subordinates. Yet most organizations, and in particular public agencies, rely very little on pure incentive contracts. Most organizations rely on the primarily coercive mechanisms of monitoring and...

This essay discusses an integrative economic theory that reconciles rank-order tournaments with the traditional public administration concern for accountability in government. Recent reforms have concentrated on organizational designs that flow from piece-rate approaches to employee compensation...

Current public health debate centers on the content and extent of health problems, appropriate solutions, and acceptable practices. This essay describes and analyzes how a number of countries are answering these questions using an emerging conceptual framework of organizational change. Special...

This paper assesses the use and value of decision-making (or deliberative) teams in the form of advisory committees for regulation by the FDA. Our theoretical framework is common principles offered in organization theory for the design of such coordination mechanisms. Specifically, we examine...