A Learning Approach to the Governance of Professionals. Field Experimental Evidence

Abstract

Performance management is used by governments worldwide to incentivize professionals in schools and other public organizations. Yet, much research shows that these incentives may generate perverse dysfunctional effects. Based on a Bayesian model of learning, we propose that simply providing professional teachers with performance information— without changing their extrinsic incentives—may be enough to make them update their beliefs about their students and act accordingly. However, measuring performance may itself affect professionals’ behavior, which makes it difficult to isolate the effect of providing performance information. We designed and preregistered a field experiment in which we can isolate the effect of making performance information available to teachers and study how it affects their posterior beliefs and behavior towards the students (N=2028). The results confirm the primary hypothesis and thereby provide indications that information provision itself may be effective in the governance of public organizations.