Governments and NGOs are switching to phone-and Internet-based communication technologies to reduce costs and broaden access to public services. However, these technological shifts can backfire if they exacerbate administrative burden in high-need communities. We conducted a randomized controlled trial in Greece evaluating which communication mode best allows disadvantaged groups to solicit information about free services. Subjects were 18 times more likely to use a prepaid postcard and eight times more likely to use a postcard requiring postage than a hotline or email to seek information about free dental care. Focus groups indicate that low self-efficacy greatly limits disadvantaged groups' willingness to use newer technologies for bureaucratic inquiries. We demonstrate that the administrative burden associated with technological shifts is larger than previously believed and that widespread psychological barriers include not only the stigma of welfare receipt, but also the stigma of mishandling a conversation with a bureaucrat.
This paper investigates the relationship among length of educational training, social origin and residential segregation in Athens using a large sample of 130,000 young individuals 15 to 27 years old, as recorded in the 2011 census. Hypotheses based on high binary correlations between the length of training and a number of variables indicating social origin and the social status of residential areas were tested with a generalised linear mixed model to determine the significance of the influence of these variables on the length of educational training. A separate analysis was conducted for each age group, roughly corresponding to education levels – upper secondary (15–18 years old), undergraduate (19–22 years) and postgraduate (23–27 years). It was assumed that at each level the range and the shape of the socially and spatially unequal access to education would be significantly different. A scenario regarding the city’s important vertical segregation was also explored. It was assumed that living on different floors in the vertically segregated apartment buildings of the city’s densely built central neighbourhoods might be significantly related to the length of educational training, even after controlling for social class/status.
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