Replication Data for: How street-level bureaucrats’ traits affect community leaders' assessments of the government

Research shows that bureaucrats' performance is shaped by their personal traits, such as public service motivation, cognitive ability, grit, and "big five" personality. What impact do these traits have on citizen assessments of service delivery and governance? To test this question, we randomly assigned police officers to villages during a community-oriented policing program in the Philippines. This program involved meetings between police officers and community leaders -- citizens who serve as key conduits between the population and the state. We find that community leaders' assessments of individual officers were meaningfully affected by officers' personal traits, but those traits matter less for assessments of broader institutional efficacy. These findings suggest that bureaucrats' traits can improve public service provision by shaping how citizens approach encounters with specific government representatives. However, they place limits on the suggestion that exceptionally positive (or exceptionally negative) bureaucrats can shape attitudes towards state institutions more generally.

研究表明，官僚的工作表现受其个人特质影响，例如公共服务动机（Public Service Motivation）、认知能力、坚毅（Grit）以及大五人格（Big Five Personality）。这些特质会对公民关于公共服务供给与治理的评价产生何种影响？为验证这一问题，我们在菲律宾的社区警务项目中，将警察随机分派至各村庄开展工作。该项目包含警察与社区领袖的对接会议——这些社区领袖是连接民众与国家的关键桥梁。我们发现，社区领袖对单个警察的评价会显著受到警察个人特质的影响，但这些特质对民众评价更广泛的制度效能的作用相对较弱。上述研究结果表明，官僚的个人特质可以通过塑造公民与特定政府代表互动时的态度，优化公共服务供给。不过，该研究也限制了“极其优秀（或极其糟糕）的官僚能够更广泛地影响民众对国家机构的态度”这一观点的成立。