Knowing when to Quit: Default Choices, Demographics and Fraud

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Letzler, Robert; Sandler, Ryan; Jaroszewicz, Ania; Knowles, Isaac; Olson, Luke M.
• 署名单位: Carnegie Mellon University; Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12377
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 2617-2640
• 关键词: field experiment; ECONOMICS; disparities; INFORMATION; improve

摘要

We study defaults in a novel setting where the optimal choice is clear: the decision to escape from fraud. A government lawsuit created a natural experiment whereby some consumers enrolled in a fraudulent subscription programme were cancelled by default, while others had to cancel actively. We find that cancelling subscriptions by default increased cancellations to 99.8%, 63.4 percentage points more than requiring active cancellation. We also find that consumers residing in poorer, less-educated Census blocks were more likely than average to cancel prior to the lawsuit but were less likely to actively cancel when notified they could do so.