eprintid: 10169814
rev_number: 7
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/16/98/14
datestamp: 2023-05-15 15:59:53
lastmod: 2023-05-15 15:59:53
status_changed: 2023-05-15 15:59:53
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Hjort, Jonas
creators_name: Best, Michael C
creators_name: Szakonyi, David
title: Individuals and Organizations as Sources of State Effectiveness
ispublished: inpress
divisions: UCL
divisions: B03
divisions: C03
divisions: F24
note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
abstract: Bureaucrats implement policy. How important are they for a state’s productivity? And do the tradeoffs between policies depend on their effectiveness? Using data on 16 million public purchases in Russia, we show that 39 percent of the variation in prices paid for narrowly defined items is due to the individual bureaucrats and organizations who manage procurement. Low-price buyers also display higher spending quality. Theory suggests that such differences in effectiveness can be pivotal for policy design. To illustrate, we show that a common one—bid preferences for domestic suppliers—substantially improves procurement performance, but only when implemented by ineffective bureaucrats.
date: 2023-07-01
date_type: published
publisher: American Economic Association
official_url: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20191598
oa_status: green
full_text_type: other
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 2022436
lyricists_name: Hjort, Jonas
lyricists_id: JKHJO90
actors_name: Hjort, Jonas
actors_id: JKHJO90
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: The American Economic Review
issn: 0002-8282
citation:        Hjort, Jonas;    Best, Michael C;    Szakonyi, David;      (2023)    Individuals and Organizations as Sources of State Effectiveness.                   The American Economic Review           (In press).    Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10169814/1/18543.pdf