Equity and Coproduction: Exploring the Link between Socioeconomic Status and Willingness to Coproduce

EasyChair Preprint no. 1086

Abstract

Coproduction is broadly defined as the active involvement of service users in the production of public services. Amidst a growing body of research examining who coproduces and why, there are gaps in our understanding about whether those who have the greatest need for public services are coproducing effectively due to limitations such as historical inequities or high costs of involvement. Moreover, there is little research about what factors along the coproduction process mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status and motivations to coproduce. To explore this issue, this study analyzes individual level data from a national random sample survey of individuals who contacted the police. We use structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between socioeconomic status, respondents’ perceptions of their interaction with the police, and willingness to contact police in the future. Our analysis reveals that race alone is not a determinant of willingness to coproduce. However, we find that black citizens who have more frequent contact with the police are less likely to indicate their willingness to contact the police again. This relationship between race and willingness to coproduce is not direct but mediated by respondents’ attitudes formed during prior interactions with the police. These findings suggest that socioeconomic status serves as a factor that limits the effective participation of some groups in coproduction processes.

Keyphrases: Coproduction, law enforcement, Public Management

@Booklet{EasyChair:1086,
  author = {Seong Kang and Brian Williams},
  title = {Equity and Coproduction: Exploring the Link between Socioeconomic Status and Willingness to Coproduce},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 1086},

  year = {EasyChair, 2019}}