My dissertation complements my research agenda in public administration by focusing on citizens’ perceptions of street-level bureaucratic discretion; my future work will build on this foundation by incorporating the perspectives of bureaucrats, clients, and public managers. Throughout the dissertation, I draw on work from numerous disciplines, including public administration, public policy, political science, and social psychology.

In my first empirical chapter, which I am currently revising for resubmission at Public Administration, I explore how citizens weigh procedural compliance, client characteristics, and outcomes in their evaluations of bureaucrats. I find that only compliance led to large shifts in citizens’ agreement with bureaucrats' decisions. 

In my second empirical chapter, which is under review at Public Administration Review, I draw from the social psychology, responsibility attribution, and accountability literatures to better understand how citizens attribute blame for service provision failures. I find that citizens place significantly more blame on clients for service provision failures than on the bureaucrat or agency. 

In my third empirical chapter, I compare the effects of dispositional (i.e., just-world beliefs) and situational (i.e., identity congruence) factors on citizens' and bureaucrats' support for a hypothetical bureaucrat's decision to either follow or prosocially break organizational rules. I am in the process of turning this chapter into a manuscript and will submit it for review soon after. 

I successfully defended my dissertation in April 2024. If you'd like to check it out, you can find it here.