American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Mission Motivation and Public Sector Performance: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan
American Economic Review
(pp. 2343–75)
Abstract
This paper studies, through a randomized field experiment involving community health workers in Pakistan, if public sector organizations can improve worker performance by investing in their mission motivation. The findings reveal that training aimed at strengthening mission motivation improves workers' performance in their core responsibility of monthly household visits, as well as in multiple tasks performed during and outside these visits. This holistic improvement in performance leads to improved health outcomes for children in the communities served by these workers. These results highlight the importance of promoting organizational missions as a strategy to improve public sector performance in low-income countries.Citation
Khan, Muhammad Yasir. 2025. "Mission Motivation and Public Sector Performance: Experimental Evidence from Pakistan." American Economic Review 115 (7): 2343–75. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20231247Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- C93 Field Experiments
- I11 Analysis of Health Care Markets
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- L31 Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship
- M53 Personnel Economics: Training
- O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development