KODEM Webinar: Moving (albeit slowly) from the Artificial Lab to the Real World of Public Administration

Thomas Schillemans, Utrecht University School of Governance, will present for us today:

In the past years, our research team in Utrecht has conducted a collection of studies in which we translated theories and experimental methods from behavioral sciences to public administration settings. We combined generic psychological insights in the effects of accountability with specific insights in how accountability pans out in public administration. In our experiments we studied how (more) realistic accountability conditions affect (more) realistic decision-making behaviors by public administration professionals. Our research has been productive and rewarding, we believe (see https://accountablegovernance.sites.uu.nl/) but we have also faced some challenges and have been met with some surprises. During this webinar, I will speak about how we conducted those studies and will discuss some of our lessons and challenges, both in terms of substantive lessons as well as methodological challenges and surprises arising while pursuing more theoretical research questions with (panels of) public administration professionals.

Zoom link for digital attendance to come