Reconceptualizing Administrative Burden Around Onerous Experiences

ABSTRACT Despite ongoing discussions on the need to improve the conceptualization and measurement of administrative burden, several conceptual problems remain. This study offers the first systematic analysis and evaluation of this increasingly central public management concept. Using an ontological-semantic approach, I show that the current conceptualization fails to fully and directly account for individuals’ onerous experiences. I address five interrelated issues, including the overlap of cost categories and the conflation of state actions with onerous experiences. While psychological costs should be retained, I argue for abandoning the other cost categories. Building on previous reconceptualization efforts, I propose a new framework focused on time, money, effort, and psychological costs. Additionally, I explore the structure of the concept and propose specific indicators for each dimension. I then discuss the independence of these dimensions, their capacity to reflect the distributive nature of burdens, and avenues for empirical validation.