Leonard M. Lopoo

With the constant deluge of listservs, email advertisements, and phishing scams, many email recipients have become accustomed to deleting emails from unknown sources without ever reading them. Knowing what can increase the likelihood of email engagement may improve the effectiveness of email communications in job recruitment. This brief summarizes findings from a study that reports results from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a mass email campaign to recruit applicants for a training program for K-12 teaching jobs. The authors compared email open rates between emails that contained a letter with university logos signed by a university official versus emails that contained an informational flyer with a photograph. They found that emails presented in an official letter form increased email open rates by 15%.

Text reminders and mailed flyers with behaviorally informed messages are regularly used in public sector communication. Mass email blasts are another inexpensive option to communicate with target audiences. Evidence suggests that email recipients may have become habituated to “spam” and frequently discard these messages before they read them. Thus, email may be less effective than other communication forms because they never reach their intended audience. Little research has been completed on the efficacy of these email messages, however. This study uses a randomized controlled trial to examine which email format, a letter with university logos signed by a university official or an informational flyer with a photograph, is the more salient option when recruiting for a teacher training program designed for diverse, underrepresented students. Our findings show that emails in the form of an official letter from university officials were more effective at increasing email openings and, subsequently, clicks on the program website link compared to email messages written as flyers. Initial emails sent in the fall were less successful at driving recipients to the website than reminder emails sent later. Messages emphasizing the long-term career opportunity were more successful at pushing recipients to open the follow-up message.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government relaxed the physical presence requirements for applicants of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to reduce the associated health risks for pregnant women, new mothers, and young children. Experts consider in-person application requirements an administrative burden that can constrain access to social services, but the causality of specific burdens on WIC has not previously been shown. This brief summarizes findings from a study that compared WIC caseload data collected across 738 counties in 10 U.S. states between January 2019 and May 2021 to determine how these waives affected WIC participation. The authors found that adoption of the physical-presence waiver increased WIC participation by 11%.

Background: While randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are typically considered the gold standard of program evaluation, they are infrequently chosen by public sector leaders, defined as government and nonprofit decision-makers, when an impact evaluation is required. Objectives: This study provides descriptive evidence on RCT aversion among public sector leaders and attempts to understand what factors affect their likelihood of choosing RCTs for impact evaluations. Research Design: The authors ask if public sector leaders follow similar preference patterns found among non-public sector leaders when choosing either an RCT or a quasi-experimental design and use a survey experiment to determine which factors affect the RCT choice. Subjects: The study sample includes 2050 public sector leaders and a comparison group of 2060 respondents who do not lead public sector organizations. Measures: The primary outcome measure is selecting an RCT as the preferred evaluation option. Results: When asked to make a decision about an impact evaluation, the majority of people do not choose an RCT. While also averse to RCTs, public sector leaders are about 13% more likely to prefer a RCT to a quasi-experimental evaluation compared to the general population. Public sector leaders are less likely to use RCTs for evaluations of more intense interventions, potentially because they are perceived to be superior to the options available for the control group. Conclusion: Funders should be aware that when given a choice, public sector leaders prefer other options to RCTs. Greater awareness of the benefits of RCTs could increase their use in the public sector.

Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, this study analyzes the effect of exposure to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in childhood on marriage and childbearing in early adulthood. Results suggest that EITC exposure in childhood leads women to delay marriage and first births in early adulthood (ages 16–25), but has no effect on men. A $1,000 increase in EITC exposure in childhood leads to a 2%–3% decline in a woman's likelihood of having a first birth and a comparable decline in her likelihood of marrying by her early 20s. We find similar reductions in fertility among Black and White women, though marriage declines are concentrated among White women. Results are focused on children growing up in the bottom half of the income distribution and those who spent the majority of childhood residing with a single parent—two groups that are the primary beneficiaries of the EITC. These findings have important implications for the well-being of individuals exposed to the EITC in childhood, as well as their future children.

Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a cohort of individuals born between 2000 and 2011, we examine whether exposure to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in early childhood (birth to age five) affects family wealth in middle childhood (ages six through eleven). Results suggest that a $1,000 increase in EITC exposure in early childhood increases overall family wealth in middle childhood by around 4 percent. We also observe an increase in credit card debt (3 to 4 percent) and evidence that the EITC increases low-income families’ position in the wealth distribution. Effects are concentrated among white families; we find little evidence of a significant effect of the EITC on the wealth held by black families. Together, these results imply that although the EITC does appear to increase family wealth in childhood, it may not do much to reduce the substantial wealth gap between black and white families.

Prior to 2010, young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 had the highest rates of uninsurance in America. The “Dependent Care Provision” of the Affordable Care Act sought to increase insurance rates among young adults by allowing them to stay on their parents’ policy until age 26. We examine the human capital decisions young adults make once they have an option for health insurance outside of employer-sponsored health insurance. Using the American Community Survey from 2001 to 2016 and a difference-in-differences research design, we found that the implementation of the mandate was associated with a 3–5 percent increase in college enrollment among women 23–25 years of age. This result is robust to a variety of specifications. We did not find a consistent effect among men. Our results suggest that increased flexibility in health insurance markets has implications for human capital investment.