Can Nudges Increase Take-Up of the EITC? Evidence from Multiple Field Experimentst

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Linos, Elizabeth; Prohofsky, Allen; Ramesh, Aparna; Rothstein, Jesse; Unrath, Matthew
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley; Harvard University; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200603
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 432-452
• 关键词: administrative-data; source credibility; tax benefits; PARTICIPATION; INFORMATION; nonfilers; KNOWLEDGE

摘要

The Earned Income Tax Credit distributes more than $60 billion to over 20 million low-income families annually. Nevertheless, an estimated one-fifth of eligible households do not claim it. We ran six preregistered, large-scale field experiments with 1 million obser-vations to test whether nudges could increase EITC take-up. Despite varying the content, design, messenger, and mode of our messages, we find no evidence that they affected households' likeli-hood of filing a tax return or claiming the credit. We conclude that even the most behaviorally informed low-touch outreach efforts cannot overcome the barriers faced by low-income households who do not file returns. (JEL C93, D91, H24, I38)