Failing the Test

• In Event: Challenging Paradigms in the Study of Bureaucracy

Abstract

Virtually every country selects its civil servants with examinations. The outcomes of these tests, however, may prompt attitudinal shifts on the part of winners and losers if successful applicants disproportionately hail from specific ethnic, racial, or religious groups. To evaluate this hypothesis, I partnered with the Indonesian civil service agency to solicit survey responses from the universe of applicants for civil service jobs. Matching responses to the database of test scores, I implement a regression discontinuity design to establish three findings concerning narrow losers, compared against narrow winners: they are more likely to (1) support preferential treatment for in-groups, (2) reflect negatively on an ethnically-inclusive national identity, and (3) believe the recruitment process was corrupt. Additional tests decomposing the main results provide support for both an “alienation” effect on the part of losers and an “aggrandizing” effect on the part of winners.

Author

• Nicholas Kuipers, UC Berkeley