This paper argues that government should pay greater heed to recruitment and retention when designing performance measurement systems for bureaucracies. In the face of pervasive rigidities in public sector pay, internal performance measurement rewards quitters and scars stayers and therefore makes it difficult to recruit and retain. Full and immediate publication of performance minimizes the cost of initial recruitment but entails retaining and paying rents to poor performers. This is optimal only if skill differences are low and the value of public production is moderate: high enough to warrant recruitment but not so high that good performers are retained. Human capital objectives are typically better met by abstaining from performance measurement altogether or `stage-managing` its publication, suggesting that the current emphasis on incentives and accountability may be misplaced.
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Paper provided by University of Oxford, Department of Economics in its series Economics Series Working Papers with number
219.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption H10 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - General J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
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