Does mislabeling COVID-19 elicit the perception of threat and reduce blame?

Associating a life-threatening crisis with a geographic locality can stigmatize people from that area. However, such a strategy may reduce the public blame attributed to the government because the perceived foreign threat establishes a scapegoat, which transfers that blame. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigated whether the “Chinese Virus” label placed on COVID-19 has elicited opposition to Chinese immigrants and reduced public blame attributed to the federal government. We used a survey experiment during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a list experiment to measure perceived threat. The descriptive analysis suggested a negative attitude toward Chinese immigrants overall, in which conservatives expressed stronger negative attitudes than did liberals and moderates. While labelling COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus” did not make a difference overall, our exploratory results shows that it led to a significant increase in liberals’ perception that Chinese immigrants are a threat. However, the “Chinese Virus” label showed no effect overall in reducing the extent to which either liberals or conservatives’ attributed blame to the federal government.

Public support for ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ public policies: Review of the evidence

This article reviews the literature on public support for ‘soft’ versus ‘hard’ policy instruments for behaviour change, and the factors that drive such preferences. Soft policies typically include ‘moral suasion’ and educational campaigns, and more recently behavioural public policy approaches like nudges. Hard policy instruments, such as laws and taxes, restrict choices and alter financial incentives. In contrast to the public support evidenced for hard policy instruments during COVID-19, prior academic literature pointed to support for softer policy instruments. We investigate and synthesise the evidence on when people prefer one type of policy instrument over another. Drawing on multi-disciplinary evidence, we identify perceived effectiveness, trust, personal experience and self-interest as important determinants of policy instrument preferences, along with broader factors including the choice and country context. We further identify various gaps in our understanding that informs and organise a future research agenda around three themes. Specifically, we propose new directions for research on what drives public support for hard versus soft behavioural public policies, highlighting the value of investigating the role of individual versus contextual factors (especially the role of behavioural biases); how preferences evolve over time; and whether and how preferences spillovers across different policy domains.

Leveraging insights from behavioral science and administrative burden in free college program design: A typology

Amid concerns over college affordability, many communities and states have enacted free college programs, and the Biden administration has brought momentum to federal free college discussions. Today, hundreds of college promise programs exist in communities across the country, including at least 20 state-sponsored free college programs. While free college policies have the potential to increase enrollment by reducing college costs, substantial variation in program design likely shapes how effective these programs are at expanding college access and reducing racial and economic disparities. This paper leverages insights from administrative burden and behavioral science to develop a typology of statewide free college programs, offering a framework for examining how policy design reduces (or increases) the burden individuals are likely to incur in receiving free college benefits. To do so, we collected data on design features of free college programs (e.g., eligibility criteria, application procedures, maintenance requirements) and created indices capturing the extent to which each program imposes administrative burden and, conversely, offers behavioral supports to help students navigate the aid process. Our findings offer insight for policymakers as they design free college programs and provide context for researchers examining the effectiveness and equity outcomes of statewide free college programs.

Designing to minimize the administrative burden of trash disposal: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial in New York City public housing

The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is the largest public housing manager in North America. One widespread concern for residents and staff is the improper disposal of household trash and litter on NYCHA grounds. Here we present the co-produced service of trash disposal through the lens of administrative burden; official policy is unclear for residents and options are confusing or inconvenient, resulting in significant learning, compliance, and psychological costs. To reduce this burden, we redesigned the trash disposal infrastructure – new large containers placed at convenient locations – and introduced a package of indoor and outdoor posters communicating the new policy. 53 NYCHA developments, randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, were broken into 79 smaller observation sites. Weekly counts of visible trash bags and litter were collected pre-intervention and post-intervention, over a period of 21 weeks. The average number of household trash bags decreased by 25% (p<.05) in treatment sites after the intervention, and the average amount of litter decreased by 16% (p<.05). Providing easier access to disposal infrastructure, complemented by community-oriented and instructional communications, significantly reduced visible trash on NYCHA grounds, demonstrating that new structures and resources can effectively reduce burdens and change behavior.

Using behavioral outreach to counteract administrative burden and encourage take-up of simplified disability payment rules

Take-up of employment programs among people with disabilities can be limited by the administrative burdens of decision-making, which must factor in the complexities of how work affects disability cash assistance payments. This study presents evidence on using outreach motivated by behavioral research to encourage enrollment in a pilot initiative with the Social Security Administration that simplified Social Security Disability Insurance payment rules. Because enrolling would leave some beneficiaries worse off, informed enrollment decisions required understanding both the complexities of current rules and potential effects of the new demonstration rules. We sought to counteract bottlenecks stemming from decision-making burdens through increased outreach with tailored messaging. A randomized controlled trial was used to test two features of a reminder postcard. First, we compared fold-over postcards containing information about the demonstration to open postcards with more generic information, finding that fold-over postcards increased enrollment by around 25 percent (or 0.12 percentage points). Second, we compared an urgent message framing with no stated enrollment end-date to a deadline framing with an explicit enrollment cutoff date. Although the final enrollment rate was similar across timeline framing options, the urgent framing appears to have resulted in faster enrollment.

The pitfalls associated with more intensive engagement in collaborative forums: The role of behavioral spillovers and cognitive load

Polycentric governance systems feature numerous decision-making venues (“forums”) where policy actors repeatedly interact to address a subset of policy problems. Previous studies find that forums where actors dedicate greater time and cognitive resources tend to be perceived as more effective. Drawing on behavioral game theory and the Ecology of Games, we argue that the improvements afforded to any one forum vis-à-vis more intensive participation may come at a cost: lower levels of perceived effectiveness in linked forums. We use survey data collected in the Tampa Bay (FL) and California Delta (CA) water governance systems to examine our contention. Using a series of spatial Durbin models, we find that perceived effectiveness of a given forum is directly impacted by the intensiveness by which actors participate in that forum (positive association). However, there are also behavioral spillovers: the intensity with which actors participate in other forums in the system has indirect negative consequences for perceived forum effectiveness.

Citizen trust, administrative capacity and administrative burden in Pakistan’s immunization program

Pakistan has the highest infant mortality rate in South Asia, is one of two countries where wild polio is still endemic, and is ranked third for un- or under-immunized children. Why is this the case when considerable donor and government funds have been spent on Pakistan’s Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI)? Based on a year of mixed methods research in district Kasur in Punjab, Pakistan, we focus on vaccination as a site of interaction between citizens and the state and apply the concept of administrative burden to explain vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan. As immunization is a non-means tested program where the state approaches citizens expecting full compliance, we argue that learning, psychological, and compliance costs are exacerbated by the context in which parents interact with frontline bureaucrats. Citizens’ distrust of an often absent or coercive state and low administrative capacity (specifically overburdened staff, inadequate facilities, and rushed digitization) have a multiplier effect on administrative burdens imposed on parents of young children in accessing immunization programs. Therefore, attempts by the state to vaccinate citizens often exacerbate distrust, and limited capacity hinders the state’s ability to reduce the burdens experienced by citizens.

Encouraging firms to adopt beneficial new behaviors: Lessons from a large-scale cluster-randomized field experiment

Policymakers are interested in how to encourage firms to adopt beneficial new behaviors. In this study, we report on the results of an experiment to encourage firms to file their annual accounts electronically and on time. Our intervention involved UK firms filing their annual company accounts to an official registrar of companies. In a cluster-randomized controlled trial, we found behaviorally informed letters had no detectable effect on encouraging firms to file electronically. A letter using a social norm had a small (2.4%, p=0.053) effect on encouraging firms to file on time. The trial indicates behavioral science in this context has limited use in influencing firms to adopt new behaviors. We conclude more evidence is required to understand which behavioral interventions will have the most impact on influencing firm behavior in different contexts.

Administrative burden, social construction, and public support for government programs

Administrative burden imposes costs on citizens as they interact with government. A high level of administrative burden in programs is linked to negative outcomes for those engaging with the policy, such as reduced take-up. However, despite the negative effects, the mass public is often supportive of greater administrative burden for government programs, and research suggests that high levels of burden can increase favorability toward government social programs, at least for some individuals. However, research suggests that these attitudes may be affected by how target populations associated with programs are socially constructed. In this paper, we explore whether the effect of information about high and low administrative burden on program approval is influenced by the social construction of participants. Using a survey experiment, we examine how the relationship between burden and program attitudes differs across programs as well as across different types of applicants. Our results suggest the effect of burden on program approval varies by the social construction of program participants, providing insight into the role of social construction in the relationship between burden and support for government aid.

Public managers’ valuation of secondary policy objectives in public procurement – results from a discrete choice experiment

Governments are increasingly linking public procurement contracts to the attainment of secondary policy objectives. While not challenging the continuing dominance of price, this changes how service providers are selected. This study examines how public managers value environmental, innovative, and social goals against price in the public procurement of waste collection at the municipal level in Belgium. Using a discrete choice experiment, we study public managers’ valuation of secondary policy objectives. Additionally, to extend the external validity of our findings to different administrative structures, the same study has been replicated in three other countries (Norway, Germany, and Estonia). Although price remains crucial, we observe that public managers appear to be willing to pay more to increase the environmental, innovative, and social standards of public services.