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dc.titleNudging the Self-employed into Contributing to Social Security: Evidence from a Nationwide Quasi Experiment in Brazil
dc.contributor.authorVilla, Juan Miguel
dc.contributor.authorFernandes, Danilo
dc.contributor.authorBosch, Mariano
dc.contributor.orgunitLabor Markets Division
dc.coverageBrazil
dc.date.available2015-11-20T00:00:00
dc.date.issue2015-11-01T00:00:00
dc.description.abstractThis paper studies the first large scale effort by the Brazilian government to increase the social security compliance of self-employed workers using behavioral interventions. In 2014, the Brazilian Ministry of Social Security gradually delivered by postal mail a booklet reminding nearly 3 million self-employed workers their obligation to contribute to social security. We find that, sending the booklet increased payments by 15 percent and compliance rates by 7 percentage points. This increase is concentrated around the month the booklet was delivered and disappears three months after the intervention, a pattern known as action and backsliding. The relatively brief increase in payments outweighs the cost of sending the booklet by at least a factor of 2. Our results suggest that active behavioral interventions could be used as policy instruments that are orders of magnitude more cost-effective than subsides to increase social security contributions in developing countries, particularly for the self-employed.
dc.format.extent28
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.18235/0000214
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Nudging-the-Self-employed-into-Contributing-to-Social-Security-Evidence-from-a-Nationwide-Quasi-Experiment-in-Brazil.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.mediumAdobe PDF
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectTax Evasion
dc.subject.jelcodeD03 - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
dc.subject.jelcodeH26 - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
dc.subject.jelcodeH55 - Social Security and Public Pensions
dc.subject.jelcodeO17 - Formal and Informal Sectors • Shadow Economy • Institutional Arrangements
dc.subject.keywordsSocial Security;Employability
idb.identifier.pubnumberWorking Papers
idb.operationRG-T1385
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