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

Abstract

Does 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.