000			01282nam a22001457a 4500
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100			_aAneja, Abhay and Xu, Guo _958930
245			_aStrengthening state capacity: Civil service reform and public sector performance during the gilded age
260			_aThe American Economic Review
300			_a114(8), Aug, 2024:p.2352-2387
520			_aWe use newly digitized records from the post office to study the effects of strengthened state capacity between 1875 and 1901. Exploiting the implementation of the Pendleton Act—a landmark statute that shielded bureaucrats from political interference—across US cities over two waves, we find that civil service reform reduced postal delivery errors and increased productivity. These improvements were most pronounced during election years when the reform dampened bureaucratic turnover. We provide suggestive evidence that reformed cities witnessed declining local partisan newspapers. Separating politics from administration, therefore, not only improved state effectiveness but also weakened the role of local politics.-Reproduced https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20230019
773			_aThe American Economic Review
906			_aPUBLIC SECTORS
942			_cAR