Making Moves Matter: Experimental Evidence on Incentivizing Bureaucrats through Performance-Based Postings
通过巴基斯坦525名财产税检查员的两年实地实验，研究基于绩效的岗位选择机制（按绩效排名依次选岗）能否激励官僚，发现该机制使年税收增长提高30-41%。
Bureaucracies often post staff to better or worse locations, ostensibly to provide incentives. Yet we know little about whether this works, with heterogeneity in preferences over postings impacting effectiveness. We propose a performance-ranked serial dictatorship mechanism, whereby bureaucrats sequentially choose desired locations in order of performance. We evaluate this using a two-year field experiment with 525 property tax inspectors in Pakistan. The mechanism increases annual tax revenue growth by 30–41 percent. Inspectors whom our model predicts face high equilibrium incentives under the scheme indeed increase performance more. Our results highlight the potential of periodic merit-based postings in enhancing bureaucratic performance.