Human Well-being and In-Work Benefits: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Richard Dorsett and Andrew Oswald

No 7943, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Many politicians believe they can intervene in the economy to improve people's lives. But can they? In a social experiment carried out in the United Kingdom, extensive in-work support was randomly assigned among 16,000 disadvantaged people. We follow a sub-sample of 3,500 single parents for 5 ensuing years. The results reveal a remarkable, and troubling, finding. Long after eligibility had ceased, the treated individuals had substantially lower psychological well-being, worried more about money, and were increasingly prone to debt. Thus helping people apparently hurt them. We discuss a behavioral framework consistent with our findings and reflect on implications for policy.

Keywords: randomized controlled trials; government policy; in-work benefits; wage subsidies; well-being; happiness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D60 H11 I31 J38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2014-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-hap, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Working Paper: HUMAN WELL-BEING AND IN-WORK BENEFITS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL (2014)
Working Paper: Human well-being and in-work benefits: A randomized controlled trial (2014)
Working Paper: Human well-being and in-work benefits: a randomized controlled trial (2014)
Working Paper: HUMAN WELL-BEING AND IN-WORK BENEFITS: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL (2014)
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