AMERICAN POLITICS & PUBLIC POLICY WORKSHOP
Abstract: Federal policymakers have urged the use of human-centered design to reduce administrative burdens in policy implementation. In this study, we describe the potential of human-centered design principles to identify burdens, reducing the effects of what we label as administrative checkpoints. Administrative checkpoints - mandatory requirements that must be satisfied in order to progress in an administrative process - have disproportionate negative effects in excluding the public from receiving public services. Mandatory interviews are one such checkpoint. Based on consultation with safety net clients and caseworkers, we designed a field experiment (N=1,554) to minimize the exclusionary effects of mandatory interviews for SNAP applicants. Compared to a control group that received a traditional mailer reminder, SNAP applicants who also received texts reminding them of the interview and communicating flexible “interview anytime” scheduling options had a higher interview completion rate by 10 percentage points, a higher benefit-approval rate by 6 to 7 percentage points, and also completed interviews 3-4 days sooner. Follow-up surveys show that the text reminders reduced learning costs about the interview requirement and processes.
Jae Yeon Kim is an assistant research scientist at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and a research fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, Kim worked as a senior data scientist at Code for America, where he collaborated with all levels of the U.S. government to improve access to safety net programs. He completed my PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2021. His research has been published in top outlets such as Nature Human Behaviour and received multiple awards from the American Political Science Association.
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