Facilitating development: Evidence from a national-level experiment on improving bureaucratic performance in Myanmar
Publication Type
Journal Article
Publication Date
10-2023
Abstract
Despite strong theoretical foundations, randomized evaluations demonstrate that subnational performance assessments have a mixed record in improving governance. We suggest that a key factor influencing this disappointing result has been the omission of facilitation-working with bureaucrats on how to use subnational performance assessments (SPAs) effectively and encouraging collaboration across government agencies. The argument is tested on a nationally representative panel of townships in precoup Myanmar. Facilitation workshops were conducted in 20 randomly assigned townships, bringing together officials from multiple government agencies and introducing them to the results of the Myanmar Business Environment Index (MBEI), an SPA that scored a panel of 60 townships on 92 governance indicators. Results show that businesses in townships where officials attended facilitation workshops ranked their townships twice as high as the businesses in the control group. Variation in MBEI improvements was moderated by the degree of decentralization in bureaucratic agencies.
Keywords
Myanmar, Facilitation, Subnational performance assessment, MBEI, Decentralization
Discipline
Asian Studies | Political Science | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
Journal of Politics
Volume
85
Issue
4
First Page
1385
Last Page
1400
ISSN
0022-3816
Identifier
10.1086/723989
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Citation
DULAY, Dean C., & MALESKY, Edmund.(2023). Facilitating development: Evidence from a national-level experiment on improving bureaucratic performance in Myanmar. Journal of Politics, 85(4), 1385-1400.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3804
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1086/723989