Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2015
Publication Title
American Economic Journal - Economic Policy
Department
Department of Economics
Abstract
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)
DOI
10.1257/pol.20120081
Dartmouth Digital Commons Citation
Liebman, Jeffrey B. and Luttmer, Erzo F. P., "Would People Behave Differently If They Better Understood Social Security? Evidence from a Field Experiment" (2015). Dartmouth Scholarship. 2349.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/facoa/2349
