Shinohara, Shugo  <br/><br/>
Bad government performance and citizens’ perceptions: A quasi-experimental study of local fiscal crisis 

 - International Review of Administrative Sciences   
 - 89(3), Sep, 2023: p.722-740 
<br/><br/> The link between actual government performance and citizens’ performance perceptions has been controversial. Given the prevalence of negativity bias, however, the link between bad performance and citizens’ perceptions could appear to be strong. To explore this theoretically unconfirmed link, this study uses a quasi-experiment that contrasts a Japanese town in fiscal crisis, involving tax increases and service cuts, with a control village not in fiscal crisis. Using a difference-in-differences analysis with a careful retrospective pretest, it finds negative effects of the fiscal crisis on citizens’ process perception, while it shows no effects on citizens’ service satisfaction and trust in the mayor, council, and administrators. The study further finds positive associations between citizens’ performance perceptions and civic engagement. It discusses these findings to identify the boundary conditions in which a bad performance–negative perception link is likely to appear. – Reproduced <br/><br/>https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00208523211067085<br/>