How do communication technologies impact the state provision?

Abstract

Can state communication change the public provision? This paper examines the impact of a digital communication platform on state efficiency in the delivery of public services. I exploit the staggered adoption of a Digital Government platform in Chile to study its causal effects on childcare provision. I find that the adoption of the platform significantly reduces intra-government communication processing delays for official documents. Communication volume does not expand on average; instead, it is reallocated away from routine finance and compliance traffic and toward operationally critical enrollment-related exchanges between central government and local providers. Then, I look at the operational improvement and analyze how this improved communication affects service provision: childcare enrollment rises by 2.7–4.9%. The enrollment increase is concentrated in high-quality and previously underutilized child centers. Overall, the findings suggest that technology enabled coordination within government and enhances efficiency by facilitating a more effective allocation of existing resources.