Mitigating Psychological Costs—The Role of Citizens’ Administrative Literacy and Social Capital

Abstract

A key claim in the administrative burden framework is that citizens do not experience interactions with public programs as equally burdensome. Existing research has argued that citizens' generic human capital may influence the severity of these experiences. In this article, we argue that a specific form of human capital specific to interactions with public programs-administrative literacy-affects the psychological costs recipients are facing. Specifically, we propose that administrative literacy is positively associated with autonomy maintenance in the face of burdensome rules, and that autonomy maintenance is negatively associated with stress. In doing so, we investigate a theoretically founded differentiation of psychological costs. We test these propositions using structural equation modeling on a unique survey of 915 unemployment insurance recipients in Denmark. The findings support our arguments, suggesting that accumulation or training of program-specific human capital may help recipients to cope with the strains of unemployment. Evidence for Practice• Unemployment insurance recipients are highly vulnerable group as they encounter numerous administrative burdens. These burdens inflict feelings of autonomy loss which lead to stress. • Having high levels of administrative literacy reduces autonomy loss. Public organizations and employees should foster citizens' knowledge and skills about administrative procedures and requirements. • Social capital serves as last safeguard to avoid severe psychological costs in the form of stress even when lacking administrative literacy. • Identifying clients with low levels of administrative literacy and/or social capital makes it easier to address most needy clients.

Cream‐skimming at the frontline: The role of administrative literacy

“…Thus, this study provides first insights into the micro‐dynamics of cream‐skimming behavior that go beyond static and crude socio‐economic attributes. Potentially, administrative literacy provides a more fine‐grained explanation for individual performances differences in public encounters (Döring, 2021; Döring & Madsen, 2022) that potentially provides more targeted and hence more effective means to tackle discriminatory patterns in public service provision.…”

Most Americans support minimizing administrative burdens for Medicaid recipients as the public health emergency ends

“…Our first scale combines all nine policies into an overall measure, while our second scale combines all policies focused on shifting the burden to the state ; the third scale combines all policies focused on outreach . 42 We generally present the findings from the analysis of these three scales below but note that results for the analysis of individual policies were essentially analogous throughout. Due to the survey design with one control group and five different treatments, we estimate a number of standard ordinary least squares (OLS) models to test our hypotheses described above.…”

“…People may also vary in terms of their administrative literacy, 42 as reflected by their general ability to understand and manage administrative tasks. As people evaluate their administrative skills poorly, they are more likely to be wary of administrative burdens imposed upon themselves or others.…”

Public Administration for a New Season: Reflecting on Neglected Rural Concerns

“…They find that job vacancies do matter for performance and the core question of whether vacancies among senior managers or streetlevel employees matter more depends on the particular type of service and how the delivery process is structured within the agency. Döring and Madsen (2022) explore differentiated administrative burden among program recipients based on their level of administrative literacy. They find that administrative literacy is positively associated with autonomy maintenance in the face of burdensome rules, and that autonomy maintenance is negatively associated with stress.…”

“…Döring and Madsen (2022) explore differentiated administrative burden among program recipients based on their level of administrative literacy. They find that administrative literacy is positively associated with autonomy maintenance in the face of burdensome rules, and that autonomy maintenance is negatively associated with stress.…”