{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,7]],"date-time":"2026-07-07T07:38:55Z","timestamp":1783409935262,"version":"3.54.6"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"National Academy of Sciences","issue":"37","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,9]],"date-time":"2025-09-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1757376000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000865","name":"Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["None"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["None"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000865","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"California 100","award":["None"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["None"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.pnas.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,16]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Behaviorally informed \u201cnudges\u201d are widely used in government outreach but are often seen as too modest to address poverty at scale. In four field experiments over 2 y (\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n<\/jats:italic>\n                    = 542,804 low-income households), we test whether more proactive communication, varying message framing, and more precise targeting can boost take-up of tax-based benefits in California above and beyond traditional light-touch approaches. Our interventions focused on extremely vulnerable households, most with no prior-year earnings, who were at risk of missing out on two crucial benefits: the 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit and pandemic-relief Economic Impact Payments. Light-touch outreach consistently increased take-up of these benefits by 0.14 to 2 percentage points\u2014a 150% to over 500% relative increase\u2014regardless of message, sample, timing, or modality. These light-touch approaches resulted in over $4 million disbursed, with a highly cost-effective return of $50 to over $8,000 per $1 spent. However, higher-touch proactive outreach, varying messaging, and more precise targeting yielded minimal additional benefits, with proactive outreach even showing negative returns. These findings demonstrate that light-touch outreach can effectively shift behavior among very vulnerable households in contexts with reduced compliance burdens, but also underscore an urgent need to rethink the role of higher-touch strategies in closing take-up gaps in social safety net programs.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2504747122","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,9]],"date-time":"2025-09-09T15:36:41Z","timestamp":1757432201000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Interventions to bolster benefits take-up: Assessing intensity, framing, and targeting of government outreach"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"122","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1724-9139","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elizabeth","family":"Linos","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University","place":["Cambridge"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9512-6842","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jessica","family":"Lasky-Fink","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University","place":["Cambridge"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9576-3064","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vincent","family":"Dorie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Code for America","place":["Oakland"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6140-0858","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jesse","family":"Rothstein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Goldman School of Public Policy and Department of Economics, University of California","place":["Berkeley"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"341","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,9,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_4_1_2","unstructured":"A. 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