Command and Can’t Control: An Evaluation of Centralized Accountability in the Public Sector

DeliverEd Initiative Working Paper

Authored by: Saad Gulzar, Juan Felipe, Ladino, Muhammad Zia Mehmood & Daniel Rogger

A long-established approach to management in government has been the transmission of information up a hierarchy, centralized decision-making by senior management, and corresponding centralized accountability; colloquially known as ‘command and control’. This paper examines the effectiveness of a centralized accountability system implemented at scale in Punjab, Pakistan for six years. The scheme automatically identified poorly performing schools and jurisdictions for the attention of central management. We find that flagging of schools and corresponding de facto punishments had no impact on school or student outcomes. We use detailed data on key elements of the education production function to show that command and control approaches to managing the general public sector do not induce bureaucratic action towards improvements in government performance.