Increasing Take-Up of Literacy Tutoring: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Misty Gallo, Patrick Wolf and Harry Patrinos ()
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Misty Gallo: University of Arkansas
Patrick Wolf: University of Arkansas
Harry Patrinos: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

No 19002, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Government programs often experience low take-up, limiting their potential positive impact. We examine whether reducing registration frictions can increase participation in a state-financed literacy intervention program. In a randomized field experiment, families received either encouragement and a simplified enrollment process, or these interventions plus text message nudges, relative to a business-as-usual control group. We find that encouragement and simplified registration increased take-up by more than 10 percentage points, while a fuller treatment of encouragement, simplified enrollment, and text nudges increased take-up by 6 percentage points. We also estimate the impact of these treatments to promote use of funding and amount of funding used to access tutoring. We find positive intent-to-treat effects with the fuller treatment showing a strong impact on use and amount of funding used. These low-cost interventions offer a promising strategy for increasing participation in government programs.

Keywords: literacy; tutoring; take-up; nudge; behavioral economics; encouragement; regulatory friction; parental engagement; choice; implementation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D91 I21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-10
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