Child benefit support and method of payment: evidence from a randomized experiment in Belgium

Abstract: We present evidence from a randomized eld experiment explictly designed to shed light on the role of standard information, goal framed information, and decision task complexity in individuals’choice of payment method. The experiment encouraged 19,707 Clients of the Belgian National O¢ ce for Family Bene ts to change from bene t payment by check to payment via direct transfer via a one-time mailing. The direct mailings multiplied the switching rate of these treated individuals (relative to the controls) by more than four times, showing that simply providing information can result in a... Mehr ...