Behavioural nudges as text messages to reduce non-payment for services: a field experiment

Research in public administration has started to incorporate findings from behavioural economics, including the use of nudges aimed at changing behaviour and improving performance. Given the significant issues with non-payment for municipal services in South Africa and globally, a field experiment was conducted in the City of Tshwane, South Africa, to test whether behaviourally informed SMS messages could reduce the growth in household arrears in payment for municipal services. Households were randomly assigned to one of six groups, each receiving a different monthly SMS message, or no message at all (control group). Two hypotheses were tested: first, whether any SMS messages reduced non-payment compared to no messages; and second, whether social norms messages were more effective than other message types. While there was no significant average effect of SMS messages compared to the control group, households receiving social norms messages showed significantly lower arrears growth than the control group. Deterrence messages, however, had no significant impact.