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Incentives and the Sorting of Altruistic Agents into Street-Level Bureaucracies

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  • Margaretha Buurman
  • Robert Dur

Abstract

Many street-level bureaucrats (such as caseworkers) have the dual task of helping some clients, while sanctioning others. We develop a model of such a street-level bureaucracy and study the implications of its personnel policy on the self-selection and allocation decisions of agents who differ in altruism towards clients. When bureaucrats are paid flat wages, they do not sanction, and the most altruistic types sort into bureaucracy. Pay-for-performance induces some bureaucrats to sanction, but necessitates an increase in expected wage compensation, which can result in sorting from both the top and bottom of the altruism distribution. We also show how client composition affects sorting and why street-level bureaucrats often experience an overload of clients.
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  • Margaretha Buurman & Robert Dur, 2012. "Incentives and the Sorting of Altruistic Agents into Street-Level Bureaucracies," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(4), pages 1318-1345, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:114:y:2012:i:4:p:1318-1345
    DOI: j.1467-9442.2012.01723.x
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    Cited by:

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    4. Jean-Marie Lozachmeur & Pierre Boyer, 2013. "Welfare programs and motivation bias of social workers," 2013 Meeting Papers 617, Society for Economic Dynamics.
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    6. Galina Besstremyannaya & Sergei Golovan, 2019. "Physician’s altruism in incentive contracts: Medicare’s quality race," CINCH Working Paper Series 1903, Universitaet Duisburg-Essen, Competent in Competition and Health.
    7. Hoffmann, Lisa, 2023. "(Ch)eating for oneself or cheating for others? Experimental evidence from young politicians and students in Kenya," OSF Preprints xnez5, Center for Open Science.
    8. Rhea Molato, 2015. "Public-Private Wage Differentials and the Quality of Government Workers in the Philippines," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2015-06, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    9. Francisco Candel‐Sánchez & Juan Perote‐Peña, 2020. "Optimal Incentives on Multiple Prosocial Activities when Reputation Matters," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 122(3), pages 1207-1230, July.
    10. Timothy Besley & Maitreesh Ghatak, 2018. "Prosocial Motivation and Incentives," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 411-438, August.

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    JEL classification:

    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J4 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets
    • L3 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

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