Special Issue Introduction: experiments in public administration research in the Asia-Pacific region

Abstract

The use of experimental methods in the social and behavioural sciences, including somewhat belatedly the field of public administration, has recently exploded. Though public administration scholars in North America and Europe have begun using experiments extensively, experiments have been less common in the Asia-Pacific region. We are excited to offer this symposium in the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration that furthers the use of experiments in public administration to improve both scholarly research and practice in the region. This symposium emerged from a conference on experimental research methods held in Seoul and sponsored by the Experimental Public Management Research Lab (ExPMR Lab) at KDI School of Public Policy and Management in December of 2019. The conference has become an annual event, with 2020 being held virtually, and it will continue to serve as an important platform in the dissemination of experimental public administration research in the Asia-Pacific region. We acknowledge the generous financial support from the ExPMR Lab and KDI School. Public administration scholars have long called for an increase in the use of experiments (Bozeman & Scott, 1992), but it was only in the last decade that experiments have been widely used in public administration research. This reflects an increasing concern with “credibility” in establishing causality in the social sciences (Angrist & Pischke, 2010). While public administration has always been, and almost of necessity will remain diverse in the methodologies it employs (Zhu et al., 2019), experiments have become more common because they are very good at allowing researchers to establish causality via randomisation, something that is difficult to attain with other designs. A recent review of experimental studies in leading public administration journals by Walker et al. (2017), however, notes their continued scarcity. Though experimental research is not as common in the Asia-Pacific region, there is a small but growing group of scholars using experimental methods, and some of their cutting-edge research is included in this volume. Chen et al. review and assess Asia-Pacific region’s capacity to produce experimental research in the lead article. This review demonstrates that, thus far, experimental methods are generally limited to a small number of universities and often involve international collaborations. The authors call for greater transparency in future scholarly research, particularly the implementation procedures in experiments, reports from experiments, and statements of future directions. The lead article is followed by an article from Shapiro, Bolsen, and Kim on framing of public messages and their influence on beliefs and attributions. Using an emphasis framing experiment, the authors test whether perceived importance of cooperation with China in solving air pollution problems in the region depends on the type of framing ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 2022, VOL. 44, NO. 1, 1–3 https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2021.2021431