TY - JOUR
T1 - Managing “Last Moment Behavior”
T2 - Non-binding target dates to reduce the spikes in task completion at deadlines
AU - Dirkmaat, Thomas
AU - Rohde, Kirsten I.M.
AU - van de Veer, Evelien
AU - van Dijk, Bram
AU - Yu, Xiao
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/3
Y1 - 2023/3
N2 - Many large governmental programs - such as census, tax returns, grant applications, subsidy applications - have to deal with large volumes of submissions that take place right before the deadline. To study how to alleviate the overload during the peak submission period, we conducted two field experiments in a national census that includes submissions from farming enterprises in the Netherlands (n = 28,557 in 2016; n = 19,733 in 2017). The results show that setting an earlier non-binding target date for submission is a robust, replicable and effective method of nudging towards earlier submission. The treatments with non-binding target dates increased the probability of submitting before the peak-period by 4–5 percentage points on average. Letting people choose their own non-binding target date was also effective, yet with a smaller effect size of 3 percentage point increase in off-peak submissions. Reminding people of “early submission, early evaluation”, and providing a checklist of information to help with the submission did not improve the timing of submissions.
AB - Many large governmental programs - such as census, tax returns, grant applications, subsidy applications - have to deal with large volumes of submissions that take place right before the deadline. To study how to alleviate the overload during the peak submission period, we conducted two field experiments in a national census that includes submissions from farming enterprises in the Netherlands (n = 28,557 in 2016; n = 19,733 in 2017). The results show that setting an earlier non-binding target date for submission is a robust, replicable and effective method of nudging towards earlier submission. The treatments with non-binding target dates increased the probability of submitting before the peak-period by 4–5 percentage points on average. Letting people choose their own non-binding target date was also effective, yet with a smaller effect size of 3 percentage point increase in off-peak submissions. Reminding people of “early submission, early evaluation”, and providing a checklist of information to help with the submission did not improve the timing of submissions.
KW - Deadlines
KW - Delaying task completion
KW - Nudge
KW - Procrastination
KW - Public policy
KW - Target date
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147202446&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85147202446&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2022.104813
DO - 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2022.104813
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85147202446
SN - 0047-2727
VL - 219
SP - 1
EP - 16
JO - Journal of Public Economics
JF - Journal of Public Economics
M1 - 104813
ER -