Administrative Burden: Untangling a Bowl of Conceptual Spaghetti

Abstract

Administrative burdens in citizen-state interactions are increasingly gaining attention in both research and practice. However, being a relatively young research field, there is still considerable disagreement about how to conceptualize and measure administrative burdens. In particular, burdens are sometimes equated with what the state does, and other times with what target group members experience. We argue that such disagreement is a barrier for further theoretical development and has removed focus from empirically studying behavioral aspects of administrative burdens. We provide advice on how to conceptually bridge the gap between different conceptualizations of administrative burden and lay out a research agenda covering the next important theoretical and empirical steps based on such a shared understanding of administrative burdens.

Keywords: Administrative burden, Citizen-state interactions, Frictions, State actions, Behavioral public administration