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Take-up of Social Benefits

Author

Listed:
  • Ko, Wonsik

    (Johns Hopkins University, Department of Economics)

  • Moffitt, Robert

    (Johns Hopkins University, Department of Economics)

Abstract
Take-up of a social benefit is usually defined as receiving a benefit for which an individual or household is eligible. The take-up rate is the fraction of those eligible for a program who participate and receive a benefit or service. We survey estimates of take-up of social benefits around the world, discuss alternative theories of reasons for incomplete take-up, and survey the empirical evidence on the importance of different factors. We find a wide range of take-up rates around the world which follow some general patterns but are not easily explained. Theories of incomplete take-up include those involving low monetary or utility gains, stigma of receipt, monetary and nonmonetary costs of program participation, imperfect information, administrative barriers, and mismeasurement. The types of individuals who do and do not take up a program is argued to be determined by the joint distribution of gains and losses across those types, which ones face the largest administrative burden of participation and largest information deficits, and face more program operator error. There is a large body of evidence showing the importance of benefit gain and earnings losses from take-up but a smaller body of evidence on other factors, which shows that administrative barriers and costs, lack of information, and stigma all appear to be important for different programs. While there are no easy solutions to the problem of incomplete take-up, policies to at least lessen the problem are argued to be available, although generally not without increased government expenditure.

Suggested Citation

  • Ko, Wonsik & Moffitt, Robert, 2022. "Take-up of Social Benefits," Economics Working Paper Archive 66936, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:jhu:papers:66936
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    File URL: http://jhir.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/66936
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henning Hermes & Philipp Lergetporer & Frauke Peter & Simon Wiederhold, 2021. "Application Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment," CESifo Working Paper Series 9282, CESifo.
    2. Hermes, Henning & Lergetporer, Philipp & Peter, Frauke & Wiederhold, Simon, 2021. "Behavioral Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment," IZA Discussion Papers 14698, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Amy Finkelstein & Matthew J Notowidigdo, 2019. "Take-Up and Targeting: Experimental Evidence from SNAP," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1505-1556.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Doorley Karina & Kakoulidou Theano, 2024. "The Trouble with Take-Up," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 24(2), pages 673-682, April.
    2. Marianne Bitler & Jason Cook & Danea Horn & Nathan Seegert, 2022. "Incomplete program take-up during a crisis: evidence from the COVID-19 shock in one U.S. state," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(6), pages 1373-1394, December.
    3. Laura Castell & Marc Gurgand & Clément Imbert & Todor Tochev, 2024. "Take-up of Social Benefits: Experimental Evidence from France," Institut des Politiques Publiques halshs-04720989, HAL.
    4. Mari, Gabriele, 2023. "Less for more? Cuts to child benefits, family adjustments, and long-run child outcomes in larger families," SocArXiv e3n82, Center for Open Science.
    5. Hermes, Henning & Lergetporer, Philipp & Peter, Frauke & Wiederhold, Simon, 2021. "Behavioral Barriers and the Socioeconomic Gap in Child Care Enrollment," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 16/2021, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    6. Hermes, Henning & Krauß, Marina & Lergetporer, Philipp & Peter, Frauke & Wiederhold, Simon, 2022. "Early child care and labor supply of lower-SES mothers: A randomized controlled trial," DICE Discussion Papers 394, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    7. Stef Konijn & Derk Visser & Maria Zumbuehl, 2023. "Quantifying the Non-Take-up of a Need-Based Student Grant in the Netherlands," De Economist, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 239-266, September.
    8. Gabriele Mari, 2024. "Less for more? Cuts to child benefits, family adjustments, and long-run child outcomes in larger families," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 1-27, June.
    9. Márton Csillag & Balázs Munkácsy & Ágota Scharle, 2023. "Does cutting the value of unemployment insurance benefits affect take-up? Evidence from Hungary," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2336, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Keywords; Social programs; take-up;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I38 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Government Programs; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs

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