IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/ztnmf.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Behavioral Biases and Legal Compliance: A Field Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Emanuel, Natalia
  • Ho, Helen

Abstract

Many defendants fail to appear (FTA) for court despite the prospect of legal consequences. In a field experiment, we compare the effectiveness of text message reminders to an intervention that combines reminders with personalized assistance. The treatments are equally effective, reducing FTA by 8 percentage points from a 21 percent baseline rate. However, personalized assistance facilitates greater take-up of court accommodations such as rescheduling and payment plans. For more serious cases, the treatments reduce arrests by two percentage points, implying FTAs have a large effect on arrests. For the least serious cases, an FTA has small effects on fines.

Suggested Citation

  • Emanuel, Natalia & Ho, Helen, 2020. "Behavioral Biases and Legal Compliance: A Field Experiment," SocArXiv ztnmf, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:ztnmf
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/ztnmf
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5e264e91675e0e019e6b6a2a/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/ztnmf?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter Bergman & Raj Chetty & Stefanie DeLuca & Nathaniel Hendren & Lawrence F. Katz & Christopher Palmer, 2024. "Creating Moves to Opportunity: Experimental Evidence on Barriers to Neighborhood Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(5), pages 1281-1337, May.
    2. J.J. Prescott, 2018. "Assessing Access-to-Justice Outreach Strategies," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 174(1), pages 34-63, March.
    3. Laura C. Haynes & Donald P. Green & Rory Gallagher & Peter John & David J. Torgerson, 2013. "Collection of Delinquent Fines: An Adaptive Randomized Trial to Assess the Effectiveness of Alternative Text Messages," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(4), pages 718-730, September.
    4. Amy Finkelstein & Matthew J Notowidigdo, 2019. "Take-Up and Targeting: Experimental Evidence from SNAP," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1505-1556.
    5. Helland, Eric & Tabarrok, Alexander, 2004. "The Fugitive: Evidence on Public versus Private Law Enforcement from Bail Jumping," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(1), pages 93-122, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Goda, Gopi Shah & Levy, Matthew R. & Flaherty Manchester, Colleen & Sojourner, Aaron & Tasoff, Joshua & Xiao, Jiusi, 2023. "Are retirement planning tools substitutes or complements to financial capability?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 561-573.
    2. Bratu, Cristina & Bolotnyy, Valentin, 2023. "Immigrant intergenerational mobility: A focus on childhood environment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    3. Peter Leopold S. Bergman & Eric W. Chan & Adam Kapor, 2020. "Housing Search Frictions: Evidence from Detailed Search Data and a Field Experiment," CESifo Working Paper Series 8080, CESifo.
    4. Laura Castell & Marc Gurgand & Clément Imbert & Todor Tochev, 2024. "Take-up of Social Benefits: Experimental Evidence from France," PSE Working Papers halshs-04720989, HAL.
    5. Tatiana Homonoff & Jason Somerville, 2021. "Program Recertification Costs: Evidence from SNAP," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 271-298, November.
    6. Horrigan, John B. & Whitacre, Brian E. & Galperin, Hernan, 2024. "Understanding uptake in demand-side broadband subsidy programs: The affordable connectivity program case," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8).
    7. Chong Lu, 2022. "The effect of migration on rural residents’ intergenerational subjective social status mobility in China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3279-3308, October.
    8. Christopher J. O'Leary & Dallas Oberlee & Gabrielle Pepin, 2020. "Nudges to Increase Completion of Welfare Applications: Experimental Evidence from Michigan," Upjohn Working Papers 20-336, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    9. Bastian, Jacob E. & Black, Dan A., 2024. "Relaxing financial constraints with tax credits and migrating out of rural and distressed America," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    10. Magne Mogstad & Joseph P Romano & Azeem M Shaikh & Daniel Wilhelm, 2024. "Inference for Ranks with Applications to Mobility across Neighbourhoods and Academic Achievement across Countries," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(1), pages 476-518.
    11. C. Yiwei Zhang & Jeffrey Hemmeter & Judd B. Kessler & Robert D. Metcalfe & Robert Weathers, 2023. "Nudging Timely Wage Reporting: Field Experimental Evidence from the U.S. Supplemental Security Income Program," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(3), pages 1341-1353, March.
    12. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold, 2021. "Application Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment," CESifo Working Paper Series 9282, CESifo.
    13. Marks, Mindy & Prina, Silvia & Gernhardt, Roy, 2023. "Government Shutdown and SNAP Disbursements: Effects on Household Expenditures," IZA Discussion Papers 16452, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Chevalier, Judith A. & Schwartz, Jason L. & Su, Yihua & Williams, Kevin R., 2022. "JUE Insight: Distributional Impacts of Retail Vaccine Availability," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    15. Victoria Gregory & Julian Kozlowski & Hannah Rubinton, 2022. "The Impact of Racial Segregation on College Attainment in Spatial Equilibrium," Working Papers 2022-036, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, revised 27 Nov 2024.
    16. Hauck, Tobias & Wallossek, Luisa, 2024. "Optional (non-)filing and effective taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    17. Ha Trong Nguyen & Huong Thu Le & Luke B Connelly, 2021. "Who's declining the “free lunch”? New evidence from the uptake of public child dental benefits," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 270-288, February.
    18. Robert W. Hahn & Robert D. Metcalfe, 2021. "Efficiency and Equity Impacts of Energy Subsidies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(5), pages 1658-1688, May.
    19. Friedrichsen, Jana & König, Tobias & Schmacker, Renke, 2018. "Social image concerns and welfare take-up," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 168, pages 174-192.
    20. Keith Marzilli Ericson & Timothy J. Layton & Adrianna McIntyre & Adam Sacarny, 2023. "Reducing Administrative Barriers Increases Take-up of Subsidized Health Insurance Coverage: Evidence from a Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 30885, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:ztnmf. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.