IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejapp/v17y2025i3p414-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Information Systems, Service Delivery, and Corruption: Evidence from the Bangladesh Civil Service

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Mattsson

Abstract

Slow public service delivery and corruption are common problems in low- and middle-income countries. Can better management information systems improve delivery speed? Does improving the delivery speed reduce corruption? In a large-scale experiment with the Bangladesh Civil Service, I send monthly scorecards measuring delays in service delivery to government officials and their supervisors. The scorecards increase on-time service delivery by 11 percent but do not reduce bribes. Instead, the scorecards increase bribes for high-performing bureaucrats. A model where bureaucrats' reputational concerns constrain bribes can explain the results. When positive performance feedback improves bureaucrats' reputations, the constraint is relaxed, and bribes increase.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Mattsson, 2025. "Information Systems, Service Delivery, and Corruption: Evidence from the Bangladesh Civil Service," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 414-445, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:414-45
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20230672
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/app.20230672
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E208342V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/23411
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/23412
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/app.20230672?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jakob Svensson, 2003. "Who Must Pay Bribes and How Much? Evidence from a Cross Section of Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(1), pages 207-230.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aaron Soans & Masato Abe, 2015. "Bribery, Corruption and Bureaucratic Hassle: Evidence from Myanmar," ARTNeT Working Papers 152, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
    2. Sekkat, Khalid, 2016. "Exchange rate misalignment and export diversification in developing countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-14.
    3. Hunt, Jennifer & Laszlo, Sonia, 2005. "Bribery: Who Pays, Who Refuses, What are the Payoffs?," CEPR Discussion Papers 5251, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Xiaoyu Zhou & Yi Han & Rui Wang, 2013. "An Empirical Investigation on Firms’ Proactive and Passive Motivation for Bribery in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 461-472, December.
    5. Nauro Campos & Francesco Giovannoni, 2007. "Lobbying, corruption and political influence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 1-21, April.
    6. Seung-Hyun Lee & Kyeungrae Oh & Lorraine Eden, 2010. "Why Do Firms Bribe?," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 775-796, December.
    7. Liu, Ye & An, Yunbi & Zhang, Jinqing, 2016. "Bribe payments under regulatory decentralization: Evidence from rights offering regulations in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 61-75.
    8. Dahbura, Juan Nelson Martínez, 2020. "The short-term impact of crime on school enrollment and school choice: evidence from El Salvador," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123364, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Gaygysyz Ashyrov & Jaan Masso, 2020. "Does corruption affect local and foreign-owned companies differently? Evidence from the BEEPS survey," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 306-329, April.
    10. Hunt, Jennifer, 2004. "Trust and Bribery: The Role of the Quid Pro Quo and the Link With Crime," CEPR Discussion Papers 4567, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Krisztina Kis-Katos & Günther G. Schulze, 2013. "Corruption in Southeast Asia: a survey of recent research," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 27(1), pages 79-109, May.
    12. Hu, Juncheng, 2021. "Do facilitation payments affect earnings management? Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    13. Jie Bai & Seema Jayachandran & Edmund J Malesky & Benjamin A Olken, 2019. "Firm Growth and Corruption: Empirical Evidence from Vietnam," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(618), pages 651-677.
    14. I. Chatterjee & R. Ray, 2012. "Does the evidence on corruption depend on how it is measured? Results from a cross-country study on microdata sets," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(25), pages 3215-3227, September.
    15. Vivekananda Mukherjee and Aparajita Roy, 2019. "Incidence of Corruption On Formal And Informal Sectors: Is There Any Symmetry?," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 44(3), pages 79-99, September.
    16. Claudio Ferraz & Frederico Finan, 2011. "Electoral Accountability and Corruption: Evidence from the Audits of Local Governments," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1274-1311, June.
    17. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5135 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Claudia Trentini & Malinka Koparanova, 2013. "Corruption and entrepreneurship: does gender matter?," ECE Discussion Papers Series 2013_1, UNECE.
    19. La Rosa, Fabio & Bernini, Francesca & Terzani, Simone, 2022. "Does corporate and country corruption risk affect CEO performance? A study of the best-performing CEOs worldwide," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 234-246.
    20. Couttenier, Mathieu & Toubal, Farid, 2017. "Corruption for sales," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 56-66.
    21. Benjamin Marx & Vincent Pons & Vincent Rollet, 2022. "Electoral Turnovers," NBER Working Papers 29766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D73 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Bureaucracy; Administrative Processes in Public Organizations; Corruption
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • H83 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Public Administration
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:414-45. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.