世界银行-命令和无法控制：评估公共部门的集中问责制（英）

Policy Research Working Paper11200Command and Can’t ControlAssessing Centralized Accountability in the Public SectorSaad GulzarJuan Felipe LadinoMuhammad Zia MehmoodDaniel RoggerDevelopment Economics Development Impact GroupSeptember 2025 A verified reproducibility package for this paper is available at http://reproducibility.worldbank.org, click here for direct access. Public Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedPublic Disclosure AuthorizedProduced by the Research Support TeamAbstractThe Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.Policy Research Working Paper 11200A long-established and widely used approach to management in government has been the transmission of information up a hierarchy, and centralized decision-making and oversight; colloquially known as ‘command and control’. This paper examines accountability in such a system implemented at scale in Punjab, Pakistan. Using random variation in the intensity of accountability of the scheme, the paper shows that the corresponding de facto punishments had a negligi-ble impact on school or student outcomes. It uses detailed data on the education production function to show that this fundamental component of command-and-control approaches does not induce bureaucratic action towards improvements in government performance.This paper is a product of the Development Impact Group, Development Economics. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://www.worldbank.org/prwp. The authors may be contacted at drogger@worldbank.org. A verified reproducibility package for this paper is available at http://reproducibility.worldbank.org, click here for direct access. POLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERSTRANSPARENTANALYSISCommand and Can’t Control: Assessing CentralizedAccountability in the Public Sector*Saad Gulzar, Juan Felipe Ladino,Muhammad Zia Mehmood, Daniel Rogger†Keywords: Accountability, Bureaucracy, Education, GovernmentJEL codes: D73, H11, H83*We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Blavatnik School of Government/Education Commission DeliverEdprogram, and the World Bank’s i2i initiative, Knowledge Change Program, and Governance Global Practice