Does collective citizen input impact government service provision? Evidence from SeeClickFix requests

In: Public administration review: PAR

Abstract

AbstractDoes collective citizen input impact government priorities and performance in service provision? As cities increasingly offer interactive issue reporting options through online platforms and mobile apps, I investigate whether comments and follows on requests drive faster issue resolution. I theorize that this input signals issue validity, severity, or scrutiny, assisting city administrators in prioritizing and responding to requests. Leveraging a novel dataset of requests from 100 cities, I find that comments and follows double the probability of request closure and that collaborative requests are resolved up to 5 days faster on average than non‐collaborative requests. By comparing two cities that use the same platform but that differ in the observability of citizen collaboration, I isolate a distinct and significant influence of collective citizen input on government responsiveness. The findings speak to how technological advances enable information‐sharing from citizens that can shape service delivery rules and outcomes.