Strengthening State Capacity: Civil Service Reform and Public Sector Performance during the Gilded Age
American Economic Review · 2024 · Volume 114 · Issue 8
Abstract
We use newly digitized records from the post office to study the effects of strengthened state capacity between 1875 and 1901. Exploiting the implementation of the Pendleton Act—a landmark statute that shielded bureaucrats from political interference—across US cities over two waves, we find that civil service reform reduced postal delivery errors and increased productivity. These improvements were most pronounced during election years when the reform dampened bureaucratic turnover. We provide suggestive evidence that reformed cities witnessed declining local partisan newspapers. Separating politics from administration, therefore, not only improved state effectiveness but also weakened the role of local politics.
Keywords
Production, Cost, Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity, Capacity, Bureaucracy, Administrative Processes in Public Organizations, Corruption, Public Administration, Public Sector Accounting and Audits, Public Sector Labor Markets, Entertainment, Media, Postal and Delivery Services, Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: U.S., Canada: Pre-1913
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