arbiter
JournalsAccount

Communicating Program Eligibility: A Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Field Experiment

Jeffrey Hemmeter et al.

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy2025https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20210560article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.54

Abstract

We conducted a direct mail field experiment with 4,016,461 individuals to test several key hypotheses about why take-up of Supplemental Security Income among individuals age 65 and above is so low. Communicating likely eligibility in a basic letter generated substantial increases in take-up in relative terms. Adding behaviorally informed statements increased the effectiveness of these communications. Yet, the application rate in our study sample during the full 24-month follow-up period remained no greater than 7 percent. Our results reveal a modest trade-off between increasing applications and the conditional likelihood of award, as well as the award amount. (JEL C93, D12, D83, H55, I38, J14)

10 citations

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20210560

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{jeffrey2025,
  title        = {{Communicating Program Eligibility: A Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Field Experiment}},
  author       = {Jeffrey Hemmeter et al.},
  journal      = {American Economic Journal: Economic Policy},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20210560},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Communicating Program Eligibility: A Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Field Experiment

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.54

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.55 × 0.4 = 0.22
M · momentum0.63 × 0.15 = 0.09
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.