Intervention(s)
The education intervention consisted of three parts.
First part: Information provision
The first part was the provision of a limited amount of information on the property taxpayer’s rights and responsibilities. This information was provided to all households assigned to the treatment at the time of the baseline survey. The information was provided to each treated household by the enumerator, who had been hired by the survey firm working in collaboration with the research team. The enumerator delivered the information at the very end of the baseline survey, and was only informed of the treatment status of the household after having completed the survey and just prior to delivering the information to the treated household. Prior to conducting the baseline survey, enumerators were trained in delivering the information script; at the end of the training, each enumerator had to satisfactorily answer questions in a quiz about the content of the information script. The information provided is attached as a supplementary document to the pre-analysis plan.
Second part: Workshop event
The second part of the education intervention was a workshop event. At the time of being delivered the information during the baseline survey, each treated household was informed about the upcoming workshop event. In each wave, the workshop event took place prior to the date when collectors began working in the units. In each wave, multiple workshops were organized on different days and at different times, to accommodate for individuals’ availability. A few days prior to the first workshop, treated households were reminded of the dates and times of the set of events. Treated households were also informed they would be provided a small amount of money, upon attending the event, to cover transportation costs to the event location.
At the event, an independent tax expert delivered an interactive lecture on the rights and responsibilities of taxpayers. The content in the lecture covered the same topics as in the provided information, but in greater detail. In addition, the lecture simulated ‘cases’ of real-life scenarios, where a property taxpayer is interacting with a tax collector and is faced with a specific request or demand by the collector. The content of the lecture is provided as a supplementary document to the pre-analysis plan.
Third part: Hotline
Finally, the third part of the intervention was the creation of a hotline number. This number was delivered to each treated household at the same time as the information provision during baseline survey. The treated household was informed that they could call this number at any time, if they had follow up questions about rights and responsibilities of a property taxpayer. A member of our research team was in charge of answering the calls from the hotline number.
A script was provided to guide the conversation. In a first attempt, the research team member would attempt to provide information to the caller’s question on the basis of a manual with content. If the research team member could not provide an answer, a consultation would take place with the independent tax expert. After consultation, a follow up call would be placed with the household to provide the complete answer to their initial question. Importantly, the script emphasized that additional information could be provided to the caller, including on next steps to complete a required process, but no actual assistance in completing any process was provided. For example, if a caller had a question about appealing their property tax liability, the hotline provides information on the next steps in the appeal but offers no actual assistance in drafting the required documents and letters to trigger the appeal process.