Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? Evidence from a Field Experiment

Jeffrey Liebman () and Erzo Luttmer

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2015, vol. 7, issue 1, 275-99

Abstract: This paper presents the results of a randomized field experiment that provided information about key Social Security features to older workers. The experiment was designed to examine whether it is possible to affect individual behavior using a relatively inexpensive informational intervention about the provisions of a public program and to explore the mechanisms underlying the behavior change. We find that our relatively mild intervention (sending an informational brochure and an invitation to a web-tutorial) increased labor force participation one year later by 4 percentage points relative to the control group mean of 74 percent. (JEL C93, D12, H55)

JEL-codes: C93 D12 H55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20120081
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (110)

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Working Paper: Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? Evidence From a Field Experiment (2011)
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