Individual Demand for Building State Effectiveness

Abstract

Training and professional development are essential for building an effective workforce. Yet where benefits of capacity building accrue to society, such as with public servants, individuals may under-invest in professional development relative to the social optimum. This paper presents evidence on the extent of demand for professional development in public administration. We elicit incentive-compatible willingness-to-pay for professional development opportunities among civil servants in Ethiopia. Our findings reveal prevalent low demand for professional development activities key to building state capacity. The median respondent values access to a professional development activity as much as a packet of pens. However, demand is highly elastic, and almost all public officials are willing to undertake training for a small subsidy. An ongoing follow-up experiment aims to disentangle whether the low demand is driven by low private returns to training or by externalities that respondents fail to internalize. NOTE: the presentation will be extensively revised from the draft paper, as it will include the follow-up experiment described in the PAP (in annex).