Predicting technological coproduction: An experimental study

Coproduction is an important pillar of public service delivery across the world. While previous research has demonstrated demographic and individual motivations as predictors of willingness to coproduce, it has yet to consider the role of technology as a (collective) coproduction mechanism, as well as the value tradeoffs inherent in deploying government technology. In this paper, we use the case of digital contact tracing, an arena with inherent tradeoffs between democratic values and efficiency, and where co-production’s role in reducing the democratic deficit and increasing accountability cannot be taken for granted. To develop our hypotheses, we integrate coproduction theory with the technology adoption literature, and then use a pre-registered vignette experiment to test how characteristics of a digital contact tracing app predicts willingness to coproduce. We end our paper by discussing the implications of our findings for coproduction, and public administration research more generally.