Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? Evidence from a Field Experiment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Liebman, Jeffrey B.; Luttmer, Erzo F. P.
• 署名单位: Harvard University; Dartmouth College
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20120081
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 275-299
• 关键词: perry preschool; KNOWLEDGE; retirement

摘要

This paper presents the results of a randomized field experiment that provided information about key Social Security features to older workers. The experiment was designed to examine whether it is possible to affect individual behavior using a relatively inexpensive informational intervention about the provisions of a public program and to explore the mechanisms underlying the behavior change. We find that our relatively mild intervention (sending an informational brochure and an invitation to a web-tutorial) increased labor force participation one year later by 4 percentage points relative to the control group mean of 74 percent. (JEL C93, D12, H55)