Philip Keefer
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View article: Better Governments for Better Lives: Strengthening State Capacities for Strategic, Meritocratic, and Inclusive Management of the Civil Service in Latin America and the Caribbean
Better Governments for Better Lives: Strengthening State Capacities for Strategic, Meritocratic, and Inclusive Management of the Civil Service in Latin America and the Caribbean Open
In a context of fiscal constraints, citizen distrust, and accelerating technological change, the third edition of the regional civil service study, Better Governments for Better Lives, assesses the state of public service in Latin America …
View article: Trust and the New Institutional Economics
Trust and the New Institutional Economics Open
This essay reviews a paradox at the heart of the New Institutional Economics: institutions resolve problems of mistrust, but mistrust undermines the efficacy of institutions. Mistrust and opportunistic behavior drive the principal-agent an…
View article: General Skills Training for Public Employees: Experimental Evidence on Cybersecurity Training in Argentina
General Skills Training for Public Employees: Experimental Evidence on Cybersecurity Training in Argentina Open
Cyberattacks have risen to become one of the most critical global risks. Despite increasing investments to combat cyberattacks, there remains a significant, often unnoticed vulnerability: employees. Previous literature reveals that over tw…
View article: Voter Responses to Fiscal Crisis: New Evidence on Preferences for Fiscal Adjustment in Emerging Markets
Voter Responses to Fiscal Crisis: New Evidence on Preferences for Fiscal Adjustment in Emerging Markets Open
Though governments regularly implement fiscal adjustments to avert crisis, voter attitudes toward competing adjustment strategies are still poorly understood. A conjoint experiment with 8,000 survey respondents in Brazil, Colombia, Costa R…
View article: Making Policies Matter: Voter Responses to Campaign Promises
Making Policies Matter: Voter Responses to Campaign Promises Open
Can voters in clientelist countries be swayed by programmatic promises? Results from a structural model and a field experiment disseminating candidate policy platforms in Philippine mayoral elections indicate that they can. Voters who rece…
View article: Shifting Electorates and Preferences in Chile’s Constitutional Process
Shifting Electorates and Preferences in Chile’s Constitutional Process Open
Normatively, democratic constitutions should express how citizens want to govern themselves collectively. Little is known, however, about how citizens’ constitutional preferences can be elicited and aggregated in practice. An intuitively a…
View article: Research Insights: Does Voting Eligibility Foster Interest in Electoral Issues and Candidates?
Research Insights: Does Voting Eligibility Foster Interest in Electoral Issues and Candidates? Open
Age-based voting eligibility in Mexicos 2018 general election shows that the just-eligible score higher on several measures of low-cost political engagement compared to the just-ineligible. Exposure to information that the youth vote will …
View article: Voters’ Preferences over the Composition of Fiscal Adjustment: Experimental Evidence from Latin America
Voters’ Preferences over the Composition of Fiscal Adjustment: Experimental Evidence from Latin America Open
Despite the regularity with which governments confront the need to make fiscal adjustments, voter attitudes toward competing consolidation strategies are still not well understood. For example, an influential literature finds that voters p…
View article: Why Do Voters Support Procyclical Fiscal Policies? Experimental Evidence from Latin America
Why Do Voters Support Procyclical Fiscal Policies? Experimental Evidence from Latin America Open
Governments often pursue procyclical fiscal policies, even though they reduce voter welfare. Is this because voters actually prefer procyclical policies? The analysis in this paper exploits the first individual-level evidence from an origi…
View article: Replication data and do file for Media's Influence on Citizen Demand for Public Goods
Replication data and do file for Media's Influence on Citizen Demand for Public Goods Open
Database and do file for the paper "Media’s Influence on Citizen Demand for Public Goods Economic Development and Cultural Change"
View article: Research Insights: Are Public Sector Performance Constraints Mitigated by Workplace Trust?
Research Insights: Are Public Sector Performance Constraints Mitigated by Workplace Trust? Open
Self-collected data on public sector employees from eighteen Latin American countries reveal that employees trust in each other affects individual constraints, organizational constraints, and mission motivation. High-trust employees are i)…
View article: Policy Misperceptions, Information, and the Demand for Redistributive Tax Reform: Experimental Evidence from Latin American Countries
Policy Misperceptions, Information, and the Demand for Redistributive Tax Reform: Experimental Evidence from Latin American Countries Open
Why do individuals preferences for redistribution often diverge widely from their material self-interest? Using an original online survey experiment spanning eight countries and 12,000 respondents across Latin America, one of the most uneq…
View article: Voting Age, Information Experiments, and Political Engagement: Evidence from a General Election
Voting Age, Information Experiments, and Political Engagement: Evidence from a General Election Open
We exploit new experimental and quasi-experimental data to investigate voters' intrinsic motivation to engage politically. Does having the right to vote increase engagement or, given significant incentives to free ride, do eligible voters …
View article: Employee Trust and Performance Constraints in Public Sector Organizations
Employee Trust and Performance Constraints in Public Sector Organizations Open
Theory suggests that employee trust is key to productivity in organizations, but empirical evidence documenting links between trust and constraints on performance is scarce. This paper analyzes self-collected data on public sector employee…
View article: Policy Misperceptions, Information, and the Demand for Redistributive Tax Reform: Experimental evidence from Latin America
Policy Misperceptions, Information, and the Demand for Redistributive Tax Reform: Experimental evidence from Latin America Open
Scholars have long struggled to understand why individual preferences for redistribution often diverge widely from their material self-interest. The puzzle is acute in Latin America, largely democratic and yet one of the most unequal regio…
View article: Employee Trust and Performance Constraints in Public Sector Organizations (Discussion Paper)
Employee Trust and Performance Constraints in Public Sector Organizations (Discussion Paper) Open
Theory suggests that employee trust is key to productivity in organizations, but empirical evidence documenting links between trust and constraints on performance is scarce. This paper analyzes self-collected data on public sector employee…
View article: Research Insights: Can Voter Preferences Explain Why Governments Underinvest in Public Goods?
Research Insights: Can Voter Preferences Explain Why Governments Underinvest in Public Goods? Open
A new survey of 6,040 voting-age individuals conducted in seven Latin American metropolitan areas reveals that political and interpersonal mistrust, risk aversion and time impatience are strong predictors of voter preferences for public sp…