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C1b Long-term Impacts of Online Tax-time Savings Interventions: Effects among Persistently Poor and Resource Constrained Households
Key Words
poverty, savings, financial shocks, material hardship, persistent poverty, tax-time savings, low-income households
Short Description
Low- and moderate-income (LMI) households struggle to accumulate emergency savings, which increases economic vulnerability in the face of unexpected events like expensive car repairs. This vulnerability may be even greater among persistently poor households which might benefit most from building emergency savings. Tax refunds represent an opportunity to build emergency savings. This study examines the effects of randomly assigned behavioral interventions incorporating a choice architecture manipulation and savings-related messages aimed at encouraging refund saving and delivered through a free, online tax filing software program. The study sample comprised 4,443 tax filers, including 1,194 filers with persistent poverty. Using administrative tax data and data from a two-wave household financial survey, regression-adjusted treatment impacts were estimated using intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis to examine whether filers retained saved refunds and the proportion of refunds remaining in savings six months post-filing. Results indicated directional, but non-statistically significant increases in six-month saving outcomes across three treatment groups for the full sample, yet statistically significant treatment effects among the persistently poor sub-sample, effects which were moderated by the pre-filing absence of emergency resources. These results suggest that tax-time savings interventions are most effective among and ought to target LMI households with the greatest needs for emergency savings.
First & Corresponding Author
Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Washington University
Authors in the order to be printed
Michal Grinstein-Weiss, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard