Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35649 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 3847
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Many street-level bureaucrats (such as caseworkers) have the dual task of helping some clients, while sanctioning others. We develop a model of such a street-level bureaucracy and study the implications of its personnel policy on the self-selection and allocation decisions of agents who differ in altruism towards clients. When bureaucrats are paid flat wages, they do not sanction, and the most altruistic types sort into bureaucracy. Pay-for-performance induces some bureaucrats to sanction, but necessitates an increase in expected wage compensation, which can result in sorting from both the top and bottom of the altruism distribution. We also show how client composition affects sorting and why street-level bureaucrats often experience an overload of clients.
Subjects: 
Street-level bureaucracy
sorting
altruism
personnel policy
pay-for-performance
JEL: 
J3
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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