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A great schism approaching? Towards a micro and macro public administration

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  • Donald Moynihan

    (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Abstract

As an emerging field, behavioral public administration (BPA) has spurred important new research, documenting human biases and heuristics in public sector contexts. In doing so, it has embraced Herbert Simon’s call to draw from psychology to understand administrative behavior. To fulfill its potential, BPA should also pursue another goal of Simon: a normative aspiration toward design science, using its powerful analytical techniques to solve, and not just document, real administrative problems. Another challenge for BPA is understanding where it fits in the constellation of public administration research. One critique of BPA is that a focus on micro-level behavior leads to a neglect of big questions that were once central to public administration. But this tension may also signal the possibility of a productive division of labor, with a micro and macro public administration that addresses distinct questions, but which are connected by common research concepts.

Suggested Citation

  • Donald Moynihan, 2018. "A great schism approaching? Towards a micro and macro public administration," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 1(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:bpd:articl:v:1:y:2018:i:1:jbpa.11.15
    DOI: 10.30636/jbpa.11.15
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Aaron Deslatte, 2019. "A bayesian approach for behavioral public administration: Citizen assessments of local government sustainability performance," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 2(1).
    2. Migchelbrink, Koen & Raymaekers, Pieter, 2023. "Nudging people to pay their parking fines on time. Evidence from a cluster-randomized field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    3. Rosanna Nagtegaal & Lars Tummers & Mirko Noordegraaf & Victor Bekkers, 2019. "Nudging healthcare professionals towards evidence-based medicine: A systematic scoping review," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 2(2).
    4. Victor G. Hugg & Kelly LeRoux, 2019. "Personality traits as predictors of citizen engagement with local government," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 2(2).
    5. Fischer, Caroline & Kalucza, Janne, 2023. "Behavioural Approaches to Public Management and Governance," OSF Preprints dukz3, Center for Open Science.
    6. Amanda Rutherford & Thomas Rabovsky & Megan Darnley, 2021. "Compared to whom? Social and historical reference points and performance appraisals by managers, students, and the general public," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 4(1).
    7. Jeroen Maesschalck, 2022. "Making Behavioral Ethics Research More Useful for Ethics Management Practice: Embracing Complexity Using a Design Science Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 933-944, December.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Design; Administrative behavior; Experiments; Public Administration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • Z00 - Other Special Topics - - General - - - General
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General

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