Sequential reciprocity in two-player, two-stage games: An experimental analysis.

We experimentally test Dufwenberg and Kirchsteiger’s (2004) theory of sequential reciprocity in a sequential prisoner’s dilemma (SPD) and a mini-ultimatum game (MUG). Data on behavior and first- and second-order beliefs allow us to classify each subject’s behavior as a material best response, a reciprocity best response, both, or none. We found that in both games the behavior of about 80% of the firstmovers was a material best response, a reciprocity best response, or both. The remaining 20% of first-movers almost always made choices that were “too kind” according to the theory of reciprocity. Secondmover behavior, in both games, was fully in line with the predictions of the theory. The average behavior and beliefs across subjects were compatible with a sequential reciprocity equilibrium in the SPD but not in the MUG. We also found first- and second-order beliefs to be unbiased in the SPD and nearly unbiased in the MUG.Sequential reciprocity; Sequential prisoner’s dilemma; Mini-ultimatum game;

Why Should Universities Contribute to New Utopias?

What would the ideal society look like, and its university? In 1516 the English humanist Thomas More tried his hand at imagining a perfect society on a distant island. His Utopia was first published in the Flemish town of Leuven, home of a university that was established almost a century earlier in 1425. Five hundred years later, university scholars revisit More’s exercise in an interdisciplinary range of science-based utopias. Like More’s Utopia, later and new utopias have to be read in the light of their own times. Utopias are connected to and embedded in their social realities. They belong to their own realities and evolve with these realities. Just as utopias need their matching realities, realities also need their matching utopias. At first sight there may seem to be an inescapable tension between scientific research and the description of an ou-topos, a non-existent place. Clearly, utopias can neither change nor replace the laws of nature. Yet utopias and science can and should be related, and universities should contribute to developing new utopias.

Diseminacija znanstvenih spoznaja o reformama javne uprave: promjene u mehanizmima

This paper is about organising knowledge on the functioning of the public sector. This knowledge is not contained within a single discipline but within many empirical disciplines ranging from law, economics, management, and political science to sociology, psychology, and the like. This knowledge is clustered and scientifically organised in the field of Public Administration (PA). This paper is also relevant for knowledge about the content of policies, in which case knowledge provided by the field of PA must be added to specific knowledge of the relevant policy field, for example, education, health, security, agriculture, and so on. To make the field of PA fit for purpose, i.e., to develop grounded and evidence-based reform policies for a functional public sector of the future, there is a need to reflect thoroughly on how to organise supply and demand and the match between these, not just with regard to data and information but useful knowledge as well. To do this, it is necessary to study the shifting mechanisms of PA knowledge supply, demand, and their match (or mismatch). A set of eleven “lessons” for stakeholders in the field of PA knowledge has been formulated.Rad se bavi sistematizacijom znanstvenih spoznaja o djelovanju javnog sektora. Ovom se temom ne bavi samo jedna disciplina, već su tome posvećena mnogobrojne discipline s empirijskim pristupom znanosti poput prava, ekonomije, menadžmenta, političkih znanosti, sociologije, psihologije i drugih srodnih disciplina, a ovom se temom sustavno bavi upravna znanost. U radu se također govori o spoznajama vezanima za sadržaj javnih politika, a u tom se slučaju znanja iz upravne znanosti nadograđuju specifičnim znanjima iz odgovarajućeg područja javnih politika poput, primjerice, obrazovanja, zdravstva, sigurnosnih pitanja, poljoprivrede i slično. Cilj je učiniti upravnu znanost svrhovitom te izgraditi reformsku politiku utemeljenu na znanstvenim činjenicama kako bi javni sektor budućnosti bio funkcionalan. Stoga je potrebno podrobno promisliti o tome kako organizirati i uskladiti ponudu i potražnju, kako podataka i informacija tako i korisnih spoznaja. To se može postići proučavanjem promjena u mehanizmima ponude i potražnje o spoznajama iz područja upravne znanosti te proučavanjem u kojoj su mjeri ti mehanizmi (ne)usklađeni. U radu je navedeno jedanaest preporuka dionicima u području spoznaja o upravnoj znanosti

‘Frontier methods’ offer a powerful but accessible approach for measuring the efficiency of public sector organisations

How can the efficiency of public sector organisations best be measured? Jesse Stroobants and Geert Bouckaert write that while the efficiency of an organisation is typically measured using performance indicators, there are some notable problems with this approach, such as the tendency for different indicators to produce conflicting conclusions on organisational performance. As an alternative, they outline so called ‘frontier methods’, which use direct comparisons between different organisations to create a benchmark or standard for performance. They argue that the frontier approach not only alleviates some of the problems associated with performance indicators, but is also broadly accessible for those employed in public administration

The Public Sector in the XXI. Century: Renewing Public Sector Performance Measurement

A szerző elemzését azzal kezdi, hogy ma már nem lehet megkerülni a közszolgálati szektor teljesítményének mérését. A közszférában azonban a teljesítmény fogalmának meghatározása sem könnyű feladat. Hasznosnak látszik a teljesítmény szempontjából is elkülöníteni egymástól a mikro- , makro-, és a mezoszintet. Mikroszinten az egyes szervezetek szempontjából kell vizsgálni az eredményességet. A mezoszint lényegében a helyi önkormányzat szintje, végül a makroszint a nemzetállami szintű eredmény. Mindhárom szintre felállíthatók modellek, amelyek alapján mérhetővé tehető a teljesítmény. Mikroszinten fontos eleme az eredménynek az állampolgár bizalma a konkrét állami intézményben. Sőt, bizonyos szempontból ez a bizalom tekinthető az outputnak, amire törekednie kell a közszolgáltató intézménynek. A cél soha nem végpont a közszolgáltató szektor számára. A cél csak egy közbenső állomás, és ez különösen fontos megállapítás a középső szinten, hiszen itt kell tartósan megalapozni az állami intézményrend- szerbe vetett bizalmat. A cikk három fontos megállapítást tesz ezen a területen: 1. új koordinációs modellre van szükség a nagy állami programok között (egészségügy, oktatás, stb.) 2. tudományosan is össze kell kapcsolni a konkrét politikai irányt a közszolgálati menedzsmenttel, és végül 3. be kell vonni a vállalati-gazdálkodási szervezeti formákat a közszolgálati intézmények működtetésébe (könyvvizsgálat, stb.). Makroszinten is három fontos következtetése van a szerzőnek: 1. a makroszintű teljesítmény az alapvető versenyképességi kérdés, amit az életminőséggel szoktak mérni a közgazdaságtanban. 2. össze kell hangolni a politikatudományt és a közszolgálattal foglalkozó menedzsment-ismereteket, 3. meg kell teremteni a kapcsolatot a civil társadalom, a közszolgálatot irányítók és a politikusok között

Delphi in Criminal Justice Policy: A Case Study on Judgmental Forecasting

This article provides an in-depth case study analysis of a pilot project organized by the section Strategic Analysis of the Belgian Federal Police. Using the Delphi method, which is a judgmental forecasting technique, a panel of experts was questioned about future developments of crime, based on their expertise in criminal or social trends. The results demonstrate how police authorities could implement judgmental forecasting methods like Delphi methodology for the anticipation of future criminal trends, and how this technique, applied under specific conditions, can complement current crime analysis techniques. This article will not focus on criminal trends that were forecasted in the pilot project, but on the preconditions for using the Delphi method in criminal justice policy. Hence, this article could contribute to future applications of judgmental forecasting techniques by practitioners in both criminal justice systems and other policy domains

Public service performance and trust in government: the problem of causality

Concerns for restoring citizens’ trust in government are at the core of public sector modernization. Public distrust is often blamed on the bad functioning of public services, and in political discourse well-functioning public services are said to create trust in government. This is a very rational and mechanistic reasoning, only part of which corresponds to reality. The link between performance and trust can only be made when very specific conditions are present. The core of the discussion deals with causality: it is obvious that performance of the public administration has a certain impact on trust in government, but existing levels of trust in government may also have an impact on perceptions of government performance. In this article, we outline a framework for research on this performance-trust relation

Comparer les niveaux de confiance des citoyens et de satisfaction des utilisateurs en tant qu'indicateurs de ‘bonne gouvernance’

Jusque récemment, l’administration publique avait surtout recours à ce qu’on appelle des « indicateurs concrets », comme les ressources et les extrants, pour évaluer son rendement. L’importance croissante de la responsabilisation et des questions liées aux impacts et aux résultats ont favorisé l’émergence d’ « indicateurs secondaires » - ex. satisfaction des citoyens et des utilisateurs. Par ailleurs, l’on exige de plus en plus souvent des informations relatives à l’efficacité de la « gouvernance » dans son ensemble, comme les indicateurs de « qualité de vie ». Les politiques, les journalistes et les citoyens s’inquiètent de plus en plus de la baisse du niveau de confiance envers l’État et des effets néfastes que cela entraîne sur celui-ci et sur la cohésion de la société – ils semblent penser qu’une confiance accrue et une plus grande satisfaction équivalent à une meilleure gouvernance. L’amélioration de la qualité de la gouvernance entraînera donc aussi des citoyens plus satisfaits et plus confiants. Cet article démontre que les techniques actuelles servant à mesurer la confiance et la satisfaction à l’égard de l’État sont tendancieuses si l’on pense qu’elles mesurent la bonne gouvernance, cela pour deux raisons. D’abord, la satisfaction est difficile à mesurer, et elle est surtout axée sur l’un ou l’autre service. Ensuite, bien que la confiance dans l’État soit plus simple à mesurer, ses liens avec la bonne gouvernance sont loin d’être évidents. Même si l’on parvient à mesurer la confiance dans l’État, rien ne prouve que les variations dans le niveau de confiance sont véritablement influencées par des facteurs en rapport avec l’État. Pour terminer, nous émettons l’hypothèse selon laquelle la confiance est peut-être insuffisante mais fait inévitablement partie d’une série d’indicateurs qui ne sont pas nécessaires mais suffisants pour la bonne gouvernance

A tale of two charters

Charters are official commitments to quality and reform. Belgium introduced its Charter of the User of Public Services in 1993. The federal administration’s Copernicus reform began in 1999 and had a strong external outlook. It therefore may be considered as a second User Charter. In this article we focus on the administrative and political contingencies of the introduction of the two charters in Belgium. We show that actual administrative reform and political attention for administrative reform are distinct phenomena. Variations in political attention for reform depend on crises and on political realignment. Both charters were introduced in a period of disturbed relations between citizens and politics. The introduction of a User Charter and the launch of the Copernicus reform were definitely political events, and not merely administrative ones. A charter was needed to restore citizen-government relations. The charters, as pledges for reform, served as lightning rods for political discontent