Petra van den Bekerom is an Assistant Professor in Public Management at Leiden University and program director of the Bachelor’s program in Public Administration. Her research centers on how public service delivery shapes equity in outcomes and how different groups experience and benefit from public services. Her work focuses in particular on representative bureaucracy, performance management, and network management, often using the education sector as an empirical setting.

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Petra van den Bekerom is an Assistant Professor in Public Management at the Institute of Public Administration, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University. Her research centers on how public service delivery shapes equity in outcomes and how different groups experience and benefit from public services. Her work focuses in particular on representative bureaucracy, performance management, and network management, often using the education sector as an empirical setting. 

Her research primarily uses quantitative designs, drawing on experimental approaches, such as survey and field experiments, as well as observational data from surveys and administrative sources. Where relevant, she also uses qualitative or mixed-methods approaches. 

She has taught a range of courses, including ‘Introduction to Social Research’, ‘Research in Public Administration’, ‘Strategic Public Management and Collaboration’, and ‘Performance Management’, and has supervised bachelor’s and master’s theses. 

In addition to her research and teaching, she is the program director of the Bachelor’s program in Public Administration. She previously served as Chair of the Program Committee of the Bachelor Public Administration and as a member of the Examination Board. 

She serves on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART), is a member of the Public Management Research Association (PMRA) Membership Committee, and is affiliated with the Behavioral Public Administration Lab at Leiden University. She also regularly reviews for leading journals in public administration and public management. 

Publications