Interpersonal connections and career mobility in bureaucratic labor markets: evidence from Brazil

Journal article

Interpersonal networks are pervasive in state bureaucracies around the world. To what extent do they explain bureaucratic career trajectories? And are they driven more by political patronage and connections to influential bosses, or by information-sharing and trust-building among peers? We address these questions by constructing measures of the stock of interpersonal connections for the universe of over 440,000 Brazilian federal civil servants for the period 2000-18. Individuals’ networks strongly predict their future career mobility. Connections to higher-ranking officers or to members of the same political party have a strong effect, but the overall influence of individuals’ networks on their career trajectories is dominated by non-political connections to their peers, not connections to bosses or party colleagues. We show that these patterns are similar for politically appointed and career positions, and explore heterogeneity across various demographic groups. We discuss implications for theory and policy, as well as potential wider methodological applications.

Authors: Cardoso, D; Cireno, F; Labonne, J; Masson, P; Palotti, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Wiley
• Journal: Public Administration Review
• Pages: 1–13
• Publication date: 2026-04-06
• Acceptance date: 2026-03-05
• DOI: 10.1111/puar.70116
• EISSN: 1540-6210
• ISSN: 0033-3352
• Language: English
• Keywords: bureaucratic labor markets; bureaucratic networks; career mobility