Influencing Citizen Coproduction by Sending Encouragement and Advice: A Field Experiment

ABSTRACT: The outcomes of public services, such as education, health care, and safety, are improved considerably when citizens coproduce—that is, contribute to public service provision. Governments are therefore seeking different ways to enhance citizen coproduction. Yet, empirical studies examining the effect of different government strategies to enhance citizen coproduction remain scarce and face problems of endogeneity. In this study, we examine the effect on citizen coproduction of a simple government initiative sending information material containing encouragement and advice to citizens—an often-applied strategy to enhance citizen participation. We use a field experiment on educational services (n > 1,400) to handle endogeneity problems and at the same time examine the effect in an actual public administration setting. This unique design enables us to interpret the results as reflecting causal effects of a government initiative. Using different outcome measures, we find limited effects on citizen coproduction.