IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/10333.html

The Global Survey of Public Servants : A Foundation for Research on Public Servantsaround the World

Author

Listed:
  • Schuster,Christian
  • Mikkelsen,Kim Sass
  • Rogger,Daniel Oliver
  • Fukuyama,Francis
  • Hasnain,Zahid
  • Mistree,Dinsha
  • Meyer-Sahling,Jan
  • Bersch,Katherine
  • Kay,Kerenssa Mayo

Abstract

How do civil service management practices differ within and across governments How do coreattitudes of public servants—such as their motivation or satisfaction—differ within and across governmentsUnderstanding how public administrations around the world function and differ is crucial for strengthening theireffectiveness. Most comparative measures of bureaucracy rely on surveys of experts, households, or firms, rather thandirectly questioning bureaucrats. Direct surveys of public officials enable governments to benchmark themselves andscholars to study comparative public administration and the state differently, based on micro-data from actors whoexperience government first-hand. This paper introduces the Global Survey of Public Servants, a global initiative tocollect and harmonize large-scale, comparable survey data on public servants. The Global Survey of Public Servants canhelp scholars compare public administrations around the world and understand the internal dynamics of governments,with the published Global Survey of Public Servants data freely available online.

Suggested Citation

  • Schuster,Christian & Mikkelsen,Kim Sass & Rogger,Daniel Oliver & Fukuyama,Francis & Hasnain,Zahid & Mistree,Dinsha & Meyer-Sahling,Jan & Bersch,Katherine & Kay,Kerenssa Mayo, 2023. "The Global Survey of Public Servants : A Foundation for Research on Public Servantsaround the World," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10333, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:10333
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099617503012340767/pdf/IDU047b7124c0f40a04bcc0a117076bab6917024.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Raffler, Pia J., 2022. "Does Political Oversight of the Bureaucracy Increase Accountability? Field Experimental Evidence from a Dominant Party Regime," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 116(4), pages 1443-1459, November.
    2. Gingerich, Daniel W., 2013. "Governance Indicators and the Level of Analysis Problem: Empirical Findings from South America," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(3), pages 505-540, July.
    3. Mihály Fazekas & Ágnes Czibik, 2021. "Measuring regional quality of government: the public spending quality index based on government contracting data," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(8), pages 1459-1472, August.
    4. Adnan Khan & Guo Xu & Robin Burgess & Timothy Besley, 2022. "Bureaucracy and Development," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 397-424, August.
    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. Kim, Galileu & Kumar, Tanu & Ramalho, Rita & Russell, Stuart Ehrlich, 2026. "Institutional Capacity for Policy Implementation : An Analytical Framework," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11279, The World Bank.
    2. Aman-Rana, Shan, 2025. "Meritocracy in a bureaucracy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    3. James Habyarimana & Stuti Khemani & Thiago Scot, 2023. "The importance of political selection for bureaucratic effectiveness," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(359), pages 746-779, July.
    4. Paula López-Villalba & Christian Ruzzier, 2026. "Ideology and Corruption," Working Papers 178, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Mar 2026.
    5. Field, Lottie, 2024. "The political economy of industrial development organisations: are they run by politicians or bureaucrats?," SocArXiv a4ker, Center for Open Science.
    6. Chen, Xilu & Ge, Erqi & Xu, Xianxiang & Zhou, Quan, 2025. "Does digitalization of government activities improve business environment? The influence of public service standardization," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 533-560.
    7. Alice Medioli & Pier Luigi Marchini & Tatiana Mazza, 2024. "The impact of corruption and public governance quality on family firm business strategy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 55-69, January.
    8. Tang, Lianzhou & Xu, Wenli, 2025. "Patronage and pollution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    9. Ron Boschma, 2025. "A new evolutionary perspective on institutional complementarities and regional development," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2514, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2025.
    10. Arbolino, Roberta & Boffardi, Raffaele & Bonasia, Mariangela & Capasso, Salvatore & De Simone, Luisa, 2025. "Imitation or learning: Exploring the drivers of Special economic zones," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 456-466.
    11. Rachel M. Gisselquist, 2013. "Evaluating Governance Indexes: Critical and Less Critical Questions," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-068, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Baez, Maria Josefina & Brassiolo, Pablo & Estrada, Ricardo & Fajardo, Gustavo, 2022. "Going subnational: Wage differentials across levels of government in Brazil, Mexico, and Uruguay," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    13. Gisselquist, Rachel M., 2013. "Evaluating Governance Indexes: Critical and Less Critical Questions," WIDER Working Paper Series 068, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Caserta, Maurizio & Ferrante, Livio & Ferrara, Paolo Lorenzo & Fontana, Stefania, 2025. "Too big to be efficient? The role of size in public procurement performance," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 2049-2069.
    15. Brett, E.A., 2022. "Rebuilding public authority in Uganda dualist theory, hybrid social orders and democratic statehood," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    16. Englmaier, Florian & Muehlheusser, Gerd & Roider, Andreas & Wallmeier, Niklas, 2022. "Management and performance in the public sector: Evidence from German municipalities," CEPR Discussion Papers 17670, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Callen, Michael & Gulzar, Saad & Hasanain, Ali & Khan, Muhammad Yasir & Rezaee, Arman, 2023. "The political economy of public sector absence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    18. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    19. Chen, Shuai & Ge, Erqi, 2024. "The Anti-Corruption Campaign and the Inter-Generational Transmission of Working in Bureaucracy: Evidence from China," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1159 [rev.], Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    20. Kala, Namrata & Haseeb, Muhammad & Fenske, James, 2025. "Environmental Permits, Regulatory Burden, and Firm Outcomes," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 784, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).

    More about this item

    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:wbk:wbrwps:10333. 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.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.