Psychological Frictions and the Incomplete Take-Up of Social Benefits: Evidence from an IRS Field Experiment

Bhargava, Satish; Manoli, Dayanand

doi:10.1257/aer.20121493

Cited by 521 publications

(428 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…While the generosity of the credit varies with number of children, it does not vary with marital status; taxpayers pool their earnings and income and apply their combined resources to determine eligibility and credit amounts. 4 The reach and importance of the credit has changed substantially over its history. Figure 1 presents the real maximum EITC credit (in 1999 dollars) by tax year and family size for our analysis period, 1983 to 1999.…”

Section: The Earned Income Tax Credit and Tax Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Infant Health

Hoynes¹,

Miller

Simon³

2015

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

383

412

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Section: The Earned Income Tax Credit and Tax Reformsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Infant Health

Hoynes¹,

Miller

Simon³

2015

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

383

412

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“…Bhargava and Manoli (2015), Currie and Grogger (2001), Krueger (1990), Bitler et al (2003) and Brien and Swann (1999)). These increased application costs include requiring more frequent visits to the welfare office, reduced re-certification intervals or requiring extensive income documentation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Job-Search Periods for Welfare Applicants: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Bolhaar¹,

Ketel

Klaauw

2016

SSRN Journal

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This paper studies mandatory job-search periods for welfare applicants. During this period the benefits application is put on hold and the applicant is obliged to make job applications. We combine a randomized experiment with detailed administrative data to investigate the effects of imposing a job-search period. We find strong and persistent effects on the probability to collect welfare benefits. The reduced benefits are fully compensated by increased earnings from work. Furthermore, we do not find evidence of adverse consequences for the most vulnerable applicants.Our results therefore suggest that a job-search period is an effective instrument for targeting welfare-benefits applicants. JEL-codes: C21, C93, I38, J64, J08

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“…Interventions such as default options, personalization, salience and framing have been applied in various domains including health and well-being (Johnson and Goldstein, 2003), tax compliance (Bhargava and Manoli, 2015) and charitable giving (Behavioural Insights Team, 2013). A well-known example is the 'Save More Tomorrow' initiative of Thaler and Benartzi (2004), a prescriptive savings program which encourages employees to increase their rate of saving on receipt of a pay rise while reserving to them the ability to 'opt-out'.…”

Section: Incorporating 'Nudge' In the Contingent Valuation Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nudging Art Lovers to Donate

Lee

Fraser

Fillis

2017

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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Many nonprofit organizations face revenue uncertainty due to funding cuts. It is crucial for them to supplement existing revenue streams by private donations, and apply thoughtful market segmentation in their pursuit of donors. We introduce the behavioral concept of 'nudge' based on the possibility of loss aversion affecting willingness-to-donate, and investigate its implications for fundraising strategies. Potential donors are nudged to donate by the hypothetical scenario of 'losing' an existing exhibition, and also by that of 'gaining' an additional exhibition. We observe significant loss aversion effects as frequent gallery-goers donate more in order to avoid losing an exhibition. While both prospective gain and loss scenarios are effective in nudging non-frequent gallery-goers, the prospect of enjoying 'one more' event is observed to be stronger. We argue that there may be scope to increase support for nonprofit organizations, particularly in the cultural sector, by exploiting the psychological characteristics of prospective donors.

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Psychological Frictions and the Incomplete Take-Up of Social Benefits: Evidence from an IRS Field Experiment

Cited by 521 publications

References 41 publications

Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Infant Health

Income, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and Infant Health

Job-Search Periods for Welfare Applicants: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment

Nudging Art Lovers to Donate

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