Can SMS Technology Improve Low Take-up of Social Benefits?

Serie

• Documentos de trabajo

Resumen

• Low take up of stigma-free social benefits is often blamed on information asymmetries or administrative barriers. There is limited evidence on which of these potential channels is more salient in which contexts. We designed and implemented a randomized controlled trial to assess the extent to which informational barriers are responsible for the prevalent low take-up of government benefits among Colombian conflict-driven internal refugees. We provide timely information on benefits eligibility responsible for the prevalent low take-up of government benefits among Colombian iTY via SMS to a random half of the displaced household that migrated to Bogota over a 6-month period. We show that improving information increases benefits' take up. However, the effect is small and only true for certain type of bene fits. Hence, consistent with previous experimental literature, the availability of timely information explains only part of the low-take up rates and the role of administrative barriers and bureaucratic processes should be tackled to increase the well-being of internal refugees in Colombia.

autores

• Blanco, Mariana
• Vargas, Juan Fernando

fecha de publicación

• 2013-12

Área temática

• C93 - Experimentos de campo
• D82 - Información privada y asimétrica; Diseño de mecanismos

Enfoque geográfico

• Colombia  Country
• South America  Continent

Líneas de investigación

• Information Asymmetries
• RCT
• SMS
• Take Up Rate

Issue

• 11036