Identifying Inattention and Active Choice in Incomplete Social Assistance Takeup: The Case of WIC

[2506.03457] Identifying Inattention and Active Choice in Incomplete Social Assistance Takeup: The Case of WIC Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Economics > General Economics arXiv:2506.03457 (econ) [Submitted on 3 Jun 2025 ( v1 ), last revised 26 Aug 2026 (this version, v6)] Title: Identifying Inattention and Active Choice in Incomplete Social Assistance Takeup: The Case of WIC Authors: Lei Bill Wang , Sooa Ahn View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Existing literature on incomplete social assistance takeup points to two distinct behavioral mechanisms: inattention and active choice. We develop an econometric framework that semiparametrically identifies these mechanisms by exploiting institutional features common to public programs. Applying the framework to WIC, we compare two interventions: choice-nudging messages (CNM) and attention-boosting messages (ABM). While CNM increases takeup more because of its dynamic attention channel, ABM generates higher marginal value of public funds because its marginal participants are positively selected on willingness to pay. These results demonstrate that distinguishing inattention from active choice is crucial for both decomposing policy effects and evaluating welfare. Subjects: General Economics (econ.GN) Cite as: arXiv:2506.03457 [econ.GN] (or arXiv:2506.03457v6 [econ.GN] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.03457 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Lei Bill Wang [ view email ] [v1] Tue, 3 Jun 2025 23:40:32 UTC (3,650 KB) [v2] Thu, 31 Jul 2025 02:41:24 UTC (1,222 KB) [v3] Mon, 6 Oct 2025 00:49:27 UTC (441 KB) [v4] Tue, 14 Oct 2025 17:21:33 UTC (729 KB) [v5] Fri, 5 Dec 2025 19:59:24 UTC (728 KB) [v6] Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:14:53 UTC (1,117 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: econ.GN < prev | next > new | recent | 2025-06 Change to browse by: econ q-fin q-fin.EC References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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