Behavioral Biases and Legal Compliance: A Field Experiment

Natalia Emanuel and Helen Ho

No ztnmf, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: Many defendants fail to appear (FTA) for court despite the prospect of legal consequences. In a field experiment, we compare the effectiveness of text message reminders to an intervention that combines reminders with personalized assistance. The treatments are equally effective, reducing FTA by 8 percentage points from a 21 percent baseline rate. However, personalized assistance facilitates greater take-up of court accommodations such as rescheduling and payment plans. For more serious cases, the treatments reduce arrests by two percentage points, implying FTAs have a large effect on arrests. For the least serious cases, an FTA has small effects on fines.

Date: 2020-01-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:ztnmf

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/ztnmf

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