Simplify and Deter: Nudging waste collection fee debtors

Matúš Sloboda, Patrik Pavlovský and Emília Sičáková-Beblavá

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2024, vol. 111, issue C

Abstract: A field quasi-experiment was conducted in cooperation with the local public administration on the waste collection agenda, testing two versions of a standard notice were tested against a control notice targeted at debtors. Both simplified versions, which included a deterrence message, were more effective than the control notice in promoting compliance. However, the version that emphasized the negative consequences of nonpayment, specifically the risk of high interest rates, was more effective in increasing tax compliance than the version that included a descriptive social norm to soften the communication toward fee debtors. The study suggests that adding a social norm to a simplified notice with deterrence does not further increase tax compliance. In addition, the notice had a greater positive effect on fee debtors who had missed only one payment than on those who had missed multiple payments of waste collection fee.

Keywords: Waste collection fee; Simplification; Nudge; Social norm; Deterrence; Fee debtor; Subnational level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:111:y:2024:i:c:s2214804324000636

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2024.102225

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