Personalized Information Provision and the Take-Up of Government Benefits: Experimental Evidence from India

Though almost half of the global population is covered by at least one social protection benefit, there are significant gaps between what people are eligible to receive and what they actually receive. We implemented a cluster Randomized Controlled Trial in a large Indian city during the COVID-19 crisis to study whether and how informational gaps impede the take-up of government benefits. The intervention provided personalized information about government benefits via cell phones to randomly selected households. We document that initially, households on average overestimated entitlements but received less than the actual entitlements. We find that the intervention corrected households' beliefs about their benefit entitlements, and increased the benefits received. Household wellbeing -- as measured through consumption, food insecurity and mental health -- also improved. Investigating mechanisms, we show evidence that the intervention empowered beneficiaries to get the entitled aid without paying a bribe. 

With Amrit Amirappu, Irma Clots-Figueras, Anirban Mitra, Debayan Pakrashi and Zaki Wahhaj.