Increasing Take‐Up of Social Benefits: A Meta‐Analysis of Field Experiments

Abstract

Can reducing administrative burdens increase the take‐up of social benefits? This meta‐analysis reviews 51 field experimental studies reporting 187 treatment effect sizes. Using the administrative burden framework to compare interventions, I reclassify each intervention by the stage it measures on (application vs. final receipt) and whether it reduces the learning demands by providing information or the compliance demands by providing assistance. The results indicate that it is significantly easier to increase application rates than actual take‐up rates. On average, estimated treatment effects are about twice as large when outcomes are measured at the application stage as when they are measured on final benefit receipt. The most effective interventions are the ones reducing compliance demands, as these are estimated to increase actual take‐up by 8.31 percentage points on average. Interventions reducing learning demands are estimated to increase actual take‐up by 3.39 percentage points on average. These findings consolidate the field experimental evidence on how to improve take‐up rates and highlight the need for further research on application stages, treatment compliance, and variation across welfare regimes.