Beyond Buildings: Social Bargaining and Effective Access to Public Services

Abstract Physical access to public services frequently does not guarantee people’s needs will be met — what we term effective access . Such discrepancies result in part from social bargaining : the extent to which citizens can leverage connections with street-level service providers. Survey data from 34 African countries shows citizens with greater social bargaining capacity enjoy greater effective access, in contrast to citizens who pay bribes. Data from 70,000 households in Tanzania further demonstrates that parents with greater social bargaining capacity have more opportunities to interact with school officials — and that their children are more likely to achieve relevant learning outcomes.