Outputs (34)

Does Political Corruption Reduce Pro-Social Behavior by Bureaucrats? Lab Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh (2024)
Journal Article
Woodhouse, E. F., Meyer-Sahling, J.-H., Sass Mikkelsen, K., Schuster, C., Maruful Islam, K., & Rahman, T. (2025). Does Political Corruption Reduce Pro-Social Behavior by Bureaucrats? Lab Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh. Governance, 38(2), Article e12900. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12900

Numerous studies assess how politicians control and shape bureaucracy. Yet, how politicians’ behavior affects the norms and behaviors of bureaucrats through role modeling has not been studied. This is a curious omission, in light of evidence that soc... Read More about Does Political Corruption Reduce Pro-Social Behavior by Bureaucrats? Lab Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh.

Unethical leadership, moral compensation, and ethical followership: Evidence from a survey experiment with Chilean public servants (2024)
Journal Article
Schuster, C., Fuenzalida, J., Mikkelsen, K. S., & Meyer‐Sahling, J. (2024). Unethical leadership, moral compensation, and ethical followership: Evidence from a survey experiment with Chilean public servants. Public Administration Review, 84(5), 848-869. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13815

Numerous studies associate ethical leadership with ethical behavior in the public sector. By contrast, the effects of unethical leadership in the public sector have largely not been explored. Yet, unethical leadership need not beget unethical followe... Read More about Unethical leadership, moral compensation, and ethical followership: Evidence from a survey experiment with Chilean public servants.

Does citizen participation make public servants more satisfied with their jobs? It depends on whether they are Spectators or Participants (2023)
Journal Article
Islam, K. M., Meyer‐Sahling, J., Mikkelsen, K. S., Rahman, T., & Schuster, C. (2023). Does citizen participation make public servants more satisfied with their jobs? It depends on whether they are Spectators or Participants. Public Administration and Development, 43(5), 381-392. https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.2031

Is citizen participation in policymaking and implementation desirable? Numerous studies have explored its effects on policy outcomes and citizen attitudes. We, instead, examine its effects on public servants. Citizen participation changes public sect... Read More about Does citizen participation make public servants more satisfied with their jobs? It depends on whether they are Spectators or Participants.

The Global Survey of Public Servants: Evidence from 1,300,000 Public Servants in 1,300 Government Institutions in 23 Countries (2023)
Journal Article
Schuster, C., Mikkelsen, K. S., Rogger, D., Fukuyama, F., Hasnain, Z., Mistree, D., Meyer‐Sahling, J., Bersch, K., & Kay, K. (2023). The Global Survey of Public Servants: Evidence from 1,300,000 Public Servants in 1,300 Government Institutions in 23 Countries. Public Administration Review, 83(4), 982-993. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13611

Understanding how public administrations around the world function and differ is crucial for strengthening their effectiveness. Most comparative measures of bureaucracy rely on surveys of experts, households, or firms, rather than directly questionin... Read More about The Global Survey of Public Servants: Evidence from 1,300,000 Public Servants in 1,300 Government Institutions in 23 Countries.

Varieties of connections, varieties of corruption: Evidence from bureaucrats in five countries (2022)
Journal Article
Harris, A., Meyer-Sahling, J. H., Sass, K., Schuster, C., & Sigman, R. (2023). Varieties of connections, varieties of corruption: Evidence from bureaucrats in five countries. Governance, 36(3), 953-972. https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12714

Why do some bureaucrats engage in corruption for personal gain, yet others for political gain? We show that these forms of corruption frequently do not coincide and offer an explanation: bureaucrats hired based on political and personal connections h... Read More about Varieties of connections, varieties of corruption: Evidence from bureaucrats in five countries.

Learning effects of anti-corruption reform in public organisations: explanations from social psychological theory (2022)
Journal Article
Lee, D. S., Meyer-Sahling, J.-H., & Park, S. (2022). Learning effects of anti-corruption reform in public organisations: explanations from social psychological theory. Public Management Review, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2022.2051064

Existing studies based on institutional or rationalist approaches have limitations in explaining changes in individual ethical behaviour and thus propose social psychological models that can offer alternative explanations. We conduct surveys of over... Read More about Learning effects of anti-corruption reform in public organisations: explanations from social psychological theory.

(Extreme) political polarization and party patronage (2022)
Journal Article
Kopecký, P., Meyer-Sahling, J.-H., & Spirova, M. (2022). (Extreme) political polarization and party patronage. Irish Political Studies, 37(2), 218-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/07907184.2022.2045143

The contemporary literature on political parties has identified their gradual but consistent shift away from civil society and towards the state. As parties are becoming ever increasingly dependent on state resources and exclusively interested in gov... Read More about (Extreme) political polarization and party patronage.

Activating the "Big Man": Social Status, Patronage Networks and Pro-Social Behavior in African Bureaucracies (2022)
Journal Article
Harris, A. S., Meyer-Sahling, J.-H., & Sass Mikkelsen, K. (2022). Activating the "Big Man": Social Status, Patronage Networks and Pro-Social Behavior in African Bureaucracies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muac009/6532599

Public service delivery by African states is often characterized as particularist, favoring ethnic, personal or political networks of those inside the state over universalist, pro-social services to citizens. One explanation for particularist service... Read More about Activating the "Big Man": Social Status, Patronage Networks and Pro-Social Behavior in African Bureaucracies.

Do Bureaucrats Contribute to the Resource Curse? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in New Oil States (2022)
Journal Article
Sigman, R., Harris, A. S., Meyer-Sahling, J.-H., Mikkelsen, K. S., & Schuster, C. (2022). Do Bureaucrats Contribute to the Resource Curse? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in New Oil States. Journal of Development Studies, 58(4), 639-655. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2021.2013468

The resource curse literature argues that oil production reshapes the fiscal contract between citizens and the state: politicians become less responsive to citizen taxpayers and more likely to use public revenues for their own benefit. This paper exa... Read More about Do Bureaucrats Contribute to the Resource Curse? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in New Oil States.

Bureaucratic Professionalization is a Contagious Process Inside Government: Evidence from a Priming Experiment with 3,000 Chilean Civil Servants (2021)
Journal Article
Sass Mikkelsen, K., Schuster, C., Meyer-Sahling, J.-H., & Rojas, M. (2022). Bureaucratic Professionalization is a Contagious Process Inside Government: Evidence from a Priming Experiment with 3,000 Chilean Civil Servants. Public Administration Review, 82(2), 290-302. https://doi.org/10.1002/puar.13446

Education is at the centre of theories of how bureaucracies professionalize. Going back to Weber, the process towards a capable and professional bureaucracy has been viewed as driven by the entry of well-educated, professional recruits. We argue that... Read More about Bureaucratic Professionalization is a Contagious Process Inside Government: Evidence from a Priming Experiment with 3,000 Chilean Civil Servants.