Do Vulnerable Citizens (Really) Perceive Higher Bureaucracy Costs? Testing a Key Claim of the Administrative Burden Framework
利用德国生命事件调查数据，检验行政负担框架中关于弱势公民受行政负担影响更大的主张，发现仅在心理成本上成立，而合规和学习成本反而更低。
ABSTRACT A key claim of the administrative burden framework is that vulnerable citizens are more affected by administrative burden than others. We test this assumption using the life events survey in Germany, an official data record covering more than 10,000 administrative encounters involving more than 5000 citizens. We find support only for the psychological costs of perceived discrimination, whereas neither compliance nor learning costs are positively associated with vulnerability. On the contrary, some vulnerable groups perceive significantly lower learning and compliance costs. Post hoc analyses suggest that these groups might feel less exposed to bureaucracy because they use fewer sources of information. Further, the results also indicate that citizens' tolerance toward burden decreases with every additional administrative encounter and that previous research has missed an important distinction between absolute and relative burden.