What We Do

Since 2013, the primary aim of the Laboratory for Public Management & Policy has been to use rigorous research to enhance the performance of public services. We are a group of faculty studying policy and organizational design, management practices, and interactions between citizens, interest groups, and public organizations. We particularly focus on experimental designs, systematic research synthesis, and careful analysis of observational data.

Three sets of examples illustrate this agenda:

Over the course of several years, LaMP has developed a strong capacity in experimental research. Our speciality lies in replication, broadly understood: generalizing and extending experimental projects on questions central to public management. Examples include:

• “Shaping pro-environmental attitudes among public service trainees : an experimental study” (co-authored by LaMP member Xiaohu Wang)
• “Assessing Information-based Policy Tools : An Eye-Tracking Laboratory Experiment on Public Information Posters” (authored by LaMP members Richard Walker and Dannii Yuen-Lan Yeung, former LaMP member M. Jin Lee, and LaMP alumnus Ivan Lee)
• “Best Practice Recommendations for Replicating Experiments in Public Administration” (co-authored by LaMP members Richard Walker and Nick Petrovsky, and former LaMP member M. Jin Lee)

LaMP is also known for a focus on quantitatively integrating key literatures in public management and policy, to take stock of the distribution of evidence and use these insights to inform advances to the research agenda. Examples include:

• “Bibliometric Mapping of Emotional Labor Studies in Public Administration” (co-authored by LaMP members Chih-Wei Hsieh and Daan Wang)
• “Does Strategic Planning Improve Organizational Performance? A Meta-Analysis” (co-authored by LaMP alumnus Bert George and LaMP member Richard Walker)
• “How Does a Seminal Article in Public Administration Diffuse and Influence the Field” (authored by former LaMP member Yanto Chandra and current LaMP member Richard Walker)

Finally, LaMP members are active in carefully designed observational studies, covering range of topics: budgeting, energy, environment, human resource management, organizational design, organizational performance, sustainable development, social and public services innovation, and strategic management. Examples include:

• “Institutional Intermediaries and Firm Choices in Response to Regulations” (authored by LaMP member Ning Liu)
• “The role of political connection on overinvestment of Chinese energy firms” (co-authored by LaMP member Lin Zhang)
• “Portable Innovation, Policy Wormholes, and Innovation Diffusion” (co-authored by LaMP member Wenna Chen)