Can street-level bureaucrats be nudged to increase effectiveness in welfare policy?

Abstract

This article investigates whether street-level bureaucrats can be incentivised to process information in ways that lead to more effective implementation decisions. It draws on the literatures on behavioural public policy (BPP) and street-level bureaucracy to analyse how civil servants implement disability insurance policy in Switzerland. We conducted a field experiment to assess whether a thought-provoking nudge improves the decisional effectiveness of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs). SLBs were assigned to either a ‘business-as-usual’ control condition, or to an experimental condition, where they were called to pay attention to vulnerability processes along the beneficiaries’ life course when making decisions. While we did not find that the thought-provoking nudge directly improved effectiveness, we found that it increased beneficiaries’ humanisation. In particular, there was some evidence for indirect positive effects of the thought-provoking nudge on effectiveness via humanisation. These findings encourage BPP researchers to consider additional dimensions such as humanisation to nudge SLBs into processing information in better ways.

Nudge plus: incorporating reflection into behavioral public policy

“…For instance, Bradt's (2019) study of insurance demands against flooding finds that providing information about the probability of inundation over a 30-year span increases the effect of the nudge. Visintin et al (2020) test the efficacy of a 'thought-provoking' nudge for the implementation of disability insurance policies in Switzerland. Nudges may be enhanced if citizens are convinced of their ethical dimension (Engelen et al, 2018).…”

Navigating the Wicked Policy Problem: An In-Depth Analysis of Policy Dilemmas and Innovative Approaches for Effective Problem Solving

“…Consequently, street-level workers with insufficient resources, time, information, and mass client processing have serious and dire consequences to implementation of public policy (Visintin, et al, 2021). For instance, firstly, the ability to carry out public policies efficiently may be hampered by a lack of resources, including infrastructure, personnel, and finance.…”

Australian Politics and Policy junior edition

“…The most common form of co-design is the 35 Kingdon 1984. 36 Cohen andAviram 2021; see also Visintin et al 2021. 37 Blomkamp 2018 Policy implementation fashionable use of 'stakeholders' as a shorthand term for engagement that can vary from co-design in some full sense to consultation on less-than-vital issues to merely ritualistic gestures.…”