Paying Adolescents for Health Screenings Works

Abstract

With regard to their future health, adolescents are at a critical stage. Previous evaluations have shown that health screenings, counseling and other intervention programs during this phase of life are important, in particular for those with a low socio economic background. Unfortunately, adolescents tend to have little interest in preventive programs. We have designed a field-experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of financial incentives to promote the participation in health screenings. Our study comprises more than 10;000 participants, who we observe in high quality administrative data from Austria. The treatment group received a e40 shopping voucher if they participated in an age-specific health screening. On average the financial incentive increased the likelihood of participation by 280 %. Treatment effects are comparably larger for children in families with a higher socio-economic status, and of parents with a revealed preference for secondary health prevention.