Psychological Frictions and the Incomplete Take-Up of Social Benefits: Evidence from an IRS Field Experiment
Saurabh Bhargava () and
Dayanand Manoli
American Economic Review, 2015, vol. 105, issue 11, 3489-3529
Abstract:
We address the role of "psychological frictions" in the incomplete take-up of EITC benefits with an IRS field experiment. We specifically assess the influence of program confusion, informational complexity, and stigma by evaluating response to experimental mailings distributed to 35,050 tax filers who failed to claim $26 million despite an initial notice. While the mere receipt of the mailing, simplification, and the heightened salience of benefits led to substantial additional claiming, attempts to reduce perceived costs of stigma, application, and audits did not. The study, and accompanying surveys, suggests that low program awareness/understanding and informational complexity contribute to the puzzle of low take-up. (JEL C93, D03, H24, M38)
JEL-codes: C93 D03 H24 M38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20121493
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (313)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.20121493 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/app/10511/20121493_app.pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/10511/20121493_data.zip (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/aer/ds/10511/20121493_ds.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:105:y:2015:i:11:p:3489-3529
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions
Access Statistics for this article
American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo
More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().