JPART — 2026-08-11
Original Institutional amnesia and public administration: does history repeat?
Alastair Stark, Hridesh Gajural, Jack Corbett, Dennis C Grube, Heather Lovell, Rodney J Scott
PAR — 2026-07-27
Original Linking Decision Roles to Knowledge Utilization in US State Governments: A Mixed‐Method Study
JCC — pp. 1-20 2026-07-05 Original “Top-Down Communitarianism”: The Purposes and Limitations of China’s Point System Governance
PMR — pp. 1-32 2026-06-09 Original Improving non-executive directors’ judgement quality through information provision: a mixed-method study
PMR — pp. 1-36 2026-04-25 Original Managing noise through nudges: a mixed methods study on decision-hygiene in public management
Nicola Belle, Paola Cantarelli
Abstract
Nudging interventions can enhance expert decision-making in public management, improving resource use and equity. Using a parallel mixed-methods design, we experimentally tested 2,763 healthcare professionals’ prescribing decisions. Results show physicians are susceptible to systematic errors (i.e. bias) and exhibit variation in choices when presented with the same case (i.e. level noise), but their choices are influenced in the desired direction by guidelines, cost information, command-and-control mechanisms, reduction targets, and social comparisons. Nudges effectively reduce or redirect between-subjects variability. We also compare two noise measures: equality in distribution versus standard deviation. Semi-structured interviews with 36 healthcare managers explored real-world applications of educative and architectural nudges and root causes of noise.