Seminar in Economic Development

Guo Xu (UC Berkeley) "Strengthening State Capacity: Postal Reform and Innovation During the Gilded Age" 

Abstract:

We use newly digitized records from the U.S. Post Office to study how strengthening  state capacity affects  public service delivery in over 2,700 cities between 1875--1905. Exploiting the gradual expansion of the Pendleton Act -- a landmark civil service reform aimed at shielding bureaucrats from political interference --  we find that  cities with a reformed post office experience fewer delivery errors, lower unit costs, and an increase in mail handled per worker. These improvements in performance are most pronounced during electoral years when the reform reduced political turnover. We provide suggestive evidence for downstream effects by showing that cities with a more impartial and efficient postal service experience a decline in partisan newspapers and increase in patenting. Separating politics from administration therefore did not only result in a more effective bureaucracy, but  also helped reshape  politics and  technological change.

Contact: Jamie Murray

Contact email: jamiemurray@fas.harvard.edu