Public Sector Reform, Time Preferences and Local Policy Networks for Sustainable Development

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In fragmented and decentralised metropolitan areas,achieving long-term sustainable development is aformidable challenge for local governments. The literaturefinds that social capital affects the ability of localmanagers to adopt long-term policies. Close-knit informalties within policy networks reduce transaction costs,fostering collaboration for long-term sustainabledevelopment. However, existing studies overlook the effectof public personnel management reforms on bureaucrats'network behaviour. This research will investigate how twotypes of reforms (the professionalisation of public servicecareers, and the flexibilization and outsourcing of humanservices contracting) affect local bureaucrats' collaborativestrategies within policy networks for sustainabledevelopment in three Latin American metropolitan areas,Medellin (Colombia), Guadalajara (Mexico), and Brasilia(Brazil). I expect professionalisation reforms to improve jobsecurity, incentivising bureaucrats' to adopt long-termpolicies; I expect flexibilization and outsourcing to have theopposite effect, skewing managers' strategies towardsshort-termism.This research will use a combination of agent-basednetwork modelling, field experiments, and multivariateregression analysis. By comparing the effects of reforms onpolicy networks for sustainable development, I aim toprovide new theoretical insights and empirical evidence tosuggest new reform avenues for local governments indeveloping countries.