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

American Economic Journal:
Economic Policy

ISSN 1945-7731 (Print) | ISSN 1945-774X (Online)

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

  • Jeffrey Hemmeter
  • John Phillips
  • Elana Safran
  • Nicholas Wilson
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy (Forthcoming)

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%. Our results reveal a modest tradeoff between increasing applications and the conditional likelihood of award, as well as the award amount.

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