P12 SIG Behavioural & Experimental Public Management

Panel Chairs

Corresponding chair:

• Nick Petrovsky, City University of Hong Kong; npetrovs@cityu.edu.hk

Review-group chair

• Oliver James, University of Exeter. O.James@exeter.ac.uk

Co-Chairs

• Stephan Grimmelikhuijsen, Utrecht University. 
• Minjung Kim, Syracuse University. 
• Gregg Van Ryzin, Rutgers University. 
• Kristina S. Weißmüller, Vrije University Amsterdam. 

Call for Proposals

We invite papers employing a behavioral perspective, defined as theoretical or empirical contributions that integrate psychological and behavioral science insights into public management (Grimmelikhuijsen et al. 2017). The papers may employ different methodologies including experimentation and observational studies. However, a core theme of the panel is studies that employ experimental methods, including lab, field, or survey experiments (James, Jilke and Van Ryzin 2017). Papers may include applications of behavioral science that address questions of importance to progressing theory, informing practice, or replicating prior experimental work.

There will be special additional panel sessions this year within the overall sessions on the topics of ‘Field Experiments for Public Administration: Capacity, Performance, and Trust’ (chairs Ning Liu, City University HK ning.liu@cityu.edu.hk and colleagues, and ‘Laboratory Experiments in Public Management Research’ (chairs Wouter Lammers, KU Leuven, wouter.lammers@kuleuven.be and colleagues). Papers for these topics are also encouraged.

We invite two types of papers:

First, research papers report on the theory, methods, and findings of research that has already been conducted. We request that they clearly set out their research questions, methods, results and draw out implications of findings. We encourage submissions to follow open science practices such as pre-registering theory-testing experiments.

Second, design papers present fully developed (experimental) designs but are still work in progress. These design papers should include theory and its empirical implications, a description of details of the experiment(s), a plan for implementation and the assessment of minimal sample size needed for detecting meaningful effects. The inclusion of design papers encourages pre-review and critical feedback on experimental designs before data collection. Design papers that include a consideration of societal impact, perhaps even a societal business model are highly encouraged.

We anticipate a balance between both kinds of papers.

We encourage paper submissions from all regions of the world and from researchers at various career stages, including doctoral students and postdocs. We encourage a diversity of presenters in terms of region, gender, career stage, and substantive research interests.

Each presentation will be followed by comments to be provided by co-discussants, the participants, and the session chairs. The session chairs are all committed to being constructive and supportive of junior scholars, as they have consistently demonstrated at prior conferences.

Presenters will be allocated to panels based on the topic of their paper. We will accept papers on topics within public management and policy broadly defined. This is likely to include (and not limited to) performance management, environmental governance, local and central government organization, public contracting, and artificial intelligence in public management.

References

Grimmelikhuijsen, S., Jilke, S., Olsen, A. L., & Tummers, L. (2017). Behavioral public administration: Combining insights from public administration and psychology. Public Administration Review, 77(1), 45-56.

James, O., Jilke, S. R., & Van Ryzin, G. G. (Eds.). (2017). Experiments in public management research: Challenges and contributions. Cambridge University Press.