The Performance Scorecards experiment tests if municipal decision makers can be “nudged” to fix bottlenecks in municipal service delivery by setting performance targets and facilitating the internal assignment of responsibilities, i.e. by combining external monitoring with internal accountability.
On an annual basis, 70 municipal governments are provided with a scorecard (based on SUPERMUN data) that visualizes a municipality’s performance on key indicators that reflect national norms for municipal service delivery and institutional capacity. The performance shortfalls are explained to municipal decision makers who are asked to internally assign responsibilities for each indicator.
We annually track the performance of municipal governments in the treatment and control groups to evaluate whether this intervention leads to changes in key performance indicators for (i) administrative capacity and (ii) delivery of basic essential services.