15:00 - 16:30
Location: G05
Chair/s:
Irene Mussio
Submission 75
Poverty and Planning
PS5-G05-03
Presented by: Johan de Jong
Johan de Jong 1, Jan Stoop 2
1 University of Alicante
2 Erasmus University Rotterdam
Some tasks can only be completed at a specific time in the future, for example canceling subscriptions on services one no longer needs, applying for social benefits, and voting in (national) elections. We study how this delayed nature of a task affects low- and high SES households' ability to successfully complete it. In a real-effort field experiment we promise households a reward of 20 euros in cash if they return a postcard. They either get a short time-window of 4 days in the next month (plan treatment) or can return it any time (control treatment). We also vary the timing, either in the week before or after salaries and social benefits are typically received. The results show that the penalty of having to the delay the task (as observed from the return rates) is significantly larger for the low SES households than for the high SES households. Moreover, this effect is stronger in the week áfter salaries and social benefits are typically paid out.