Does Administrative Burden Deter Young People? Evidence from Summer Jobs Programs.

Abstract

Administrative burden can reduce the effectiveness of public social programs by deterring take up among adults, but we know little about the role these burdens play in public programs for young people. This paper uses empirical evidence to assess how different barriers shape adolescents' take-up of summer jobs programs. In a Philadelphia experiment, we find that reminder emails increased application completion by 1.3 percentage points (8.8 percent (p=0.14)), with suggestively larger effects coming from reminders emphasizing short-term monetary gains. In a non-experimental analysis of Philadelphia and Chicago programs, we further show that without individualized support during enrollment, disconnected youth are less likely to participate when offered a slot than their more advantaged peers. However, offering personalized outreach and paperwork support during enrollment makes them as or more likely to participate. Given other evidence that more disconnected youth experience larger program benefits, these findings suggest administrative burden does constrain the benefits of public spending on youth programs, and that reducing burden can increase gains from social programs for young people.