IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tep/teppwp/wp17-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Raising the take-up of social assistance benefits through a simple mailing: evidence from a French field experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Sylvain Chareyron
  • David Gray
  • Yannick L'Horty

Abstract

This paper is related to the phenomenon puzzling unduly low take-up rate for social assistance benefits in France. In order to investigate this phenomenon, we conduct an experimental evaluation in the form of a randomized control trial involving the influences of informational availability and complexity. We examine the impact of a change in the information set which is sent to these households just after they claim the benefit, seeking a behavioral response to this particular ‘nudge'. Our findings suggest that a costless action on the part of program administrators is able to substantially increase take-up for certain types of beneficiaries. In order to be effective, these actions should target households according to their individual attributes.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Sylvain Chareyron & David Gray & Yannick L'Horty, 2017. "Raising the take-up of social assistance benefits through a simple mailing: evidence from a French field experiment," TEPP Working Paper 2017-01, TEPP.
    • Handle: RePEc:tep:teppwp:wp17-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tepp-repec.eu/RePEc/files/teppwp/TEPP-wp-17-01-sc-dg-yl.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert French & Philip Oreopoulos, 2017. "Applying behavioural economics to public policy in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(3), pages 599-635, August.
    2. Jeffrey B. Liebman & Erzo F. P. Luttmer, 2015. "Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 275-299, February.
    3. Emmanuel Saez, 2009. "Details Matter: The Impact of Presentation and Information on the Take-Up of Financial Incentives for Retirement Saving," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 204-228, February.
    4. Olivier Bargain & Herwig Immervoll & Heikki Viitamäki, 2012. "No claim, no pain. Measuring the non-take-up of social assistance using register data," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 10(3), pages 375-395, September.
    5. Esther Duflo & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "The Role of Information and Social Interactions in Retirement Plan Decisions: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 815-842.
    6. Justine S. Hastings & Jeffrey M. Weinstein, 2008. "Information, School Choice, and Academic Achievement: Evidence from Two Experiments," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(4), pages 1373-1414.
    7. Beth Osborne Daponte & Seth Sanders & Lowell Taylor, 1999. "Why Do Low-Income Households not Use Food Stamps? Evidence from an Experiment," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(3), pages 612-628.
    8. Sylvain Chareyron, 2014. "Le non-recours au RSA « socle seul » : l’hypothèse du patrimoine," TEPP Research Report 2014-03, TEPP.
    9. Hallsworth, Michael & List, John A. & Metcalfe, Robert D. & Vlaev, Ivo, 2017. "The behavioralist as tax collector: Using natural field experiments to enhance tax compliance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 14-31.
    10. Denis Anne & Sylvain Chareyron, 2017. "Une analyse spatiale du non-recours aux dispositifs sociaux," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 127(2), pages 227-253.
    11. Saurabh Bhargava & Dayanand Manoli, 2015. "Psychological Frictions and the Incomplete Take-Up of Social Benefits: Evidence from an IRS Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(11), pages 3489-3529, November.
    12. Raj Chetty & Emmanuel Saez, 2013. "Teaching the Tax Code: Earnings Responses to an Experiment with EITC Recipients," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 1-31, January.
    13. Sylvain Chareyron & Patrick Domingues, 2015. "Take-up of Social Assistance Benefits: The case of Homeless," TEPP Working Paper 2015-07, TEPP.
    14. Saurabh Bhargava & George Loewenstein, 2015. "Behavioral Economics and Public Policy 102: Beyond Nudging," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 396-401, May.
    15. Milkman, Katherine L. & Beshears, John Leonard & Choi, James J. & Laibson, David I. & Madrian, Brigitte, 2011. "Using Implementation Intentions Prompts to Enhance Influenza Vaccination Rates," Scholarly Articles 8057976, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    16. Cass Sunstein, 2014. "Nudging: A Very Short Guide," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 37(4), pages 583-588, December.
    17. Bertrand, Marianne & Shafir, Eldar & Mullainathan, Sendhil, 2006. "Behavioral Economics and Marketing in Aid of Decision Making Among the Poor," Scholarly Articles 2962609, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    18. repec:bla:revinw:v:47:y:2001:i:3:p:379-98 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Damon Jones, 2010. "Information, Preferences, and Public Benefit Participation: Experimental Evidence from the Advance EITC and 401(k) Savings," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 147-163, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Denis Anne, 2019. "Aides à la mobilité et insertion sociale," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph19-03 edited by Yannick L'Horty.
    2. B. Boutchenik & R. Lardeux, 2020. "The Take-Up of Unemployment Benefit Extensions," Documents de Travail de l'Insee - INSEE Working Papers g2020-02, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.
    3. Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Christine Mayrhuber & Andrea Egger-Subotitsch & Gabriele Schmied, 2021. "Kombilohnmodelle europäischer Länder. Vergleich und Adaption während der COVID-19-Pandemie," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 69138, April.

    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. Sylvain Chareyron, 2016. "Le non-recours aux aides sociales sous conditions de ressources," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph16-01 edited by Yannick L'Horty & François Legendre.
    2. Julie Janssens & Natascha Van Mechelen, 2017. "Who is to Blame? An Overview of the Factors Contributing to the Non-Take-Up of Social Rights," Working Papers 1708, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    3. 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.
    4. Stephan, Gesine & van den Berg, Gerard & Homrighausen, Pia, 2016. "Randomizing information on a targeted wage support program for older workers: A field experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145487, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Altmann, Steffen & Cairo, Sofie & Mahlstedt, Robert & Sebald, Alexander, 2022. "Do Job Seekers Understand the UI Benefit System (And Does It Matter)?," IZA Discussion Papers 15747, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Bai, Chong-En & Chi, Wei & Liu, Tracy Xiao & Tang, Chao & Xu, Jian, 2021. "Boosting pension enrollment and household consumption by example: A field experiment on information provision," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. Jeehoon Han, 2020. "Snap Expansions And Participation In Government Safety Net Programs," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1929-1948, October.
    8. Homrighausen, Pia & Lang, Julia, 2019. "Do informational nudges alter firms’ hiring behavior of older workers?," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203481, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Boogen, Nina & Daminato, Claudio & Filippini, Massimo & Obrist, Adrian, 2022. "Can information about energy costs affect consumers’ choices? Evidence from a field experiment☆," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 568-588.
    10. Andreas R. Kostøl & Andreas S. Myhre, 2021. "Labor Supply Responses to Learning the Tax and Benefit Schedule," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(11), pages 3733-3766, November.
    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. Bastani, Spencer & Giebe, Thomas & Miao, Chizheng, 2020. "Ethnicity and tax filing behavior," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    13. Vesal, Mohammad, 2014. "Optimization Frictions in the Choice of UK Flat Rate Scheme of VAT," MPRA Paper 101017, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Altmann, Steffen & Falk, Armin & Jäger, Simon & Zimmermann, Florian, 2018. "Learning about job search: A field experiment with job seekers in Germany," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 33-49.
    15. Huber, Martin & Kotevska, Ana & Stojcheska, Aleksandra Martinovska & Solovyeva, Anna, 2019. "Evaluating an Information Campaign about Rural Development Policies in FYR Macedonia," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 117-141, April.
    16. Robert French & Philip Oreopoulos, 2017. "Applying behavioural economics to public policy in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(3), pages 599-635, August.
    17. Marieke Huysentruyt & Eva Lefevere, 2010. "Child Benefit Support and Method of Payment: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Belgium," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 2(2), pages 163-184, May.
    18. Laura Salisbury, 2024. "Union Army Widows and the Historical Take-Up of Social Benefits," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic History of American Inequality: New Evidence and Perspectives, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Richard Domurat & Isaac Menashe & Wesley Yin, 2019. "The Role of Behavioral Frictions in Health Insurance Marketplace Enrollment and Risk: Evidence from a Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 26153, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Kay Blaufus & Michael Milde, 2021. "Tax Misperceptions and the Effect of Informational Tax Nudges on Retirement Savings," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(8), pages 5011-5031, August.

    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:tep:teppwp:wp17-01. 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: Sylvain (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/teppnfr.html .

    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.