Behavioral and Informational Interventions for Property-Tax Compliance

Last registered on September 21, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Behavioral and Informational Interventions for Property-Tax Compliance
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0019570
Initial registration date
September 13, 2026

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
September 21, 2026, 9:10 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
China
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Zhixin DAI
Affiliation
Renmin university of China
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Fangwen Lu
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Yixin Chen
PI Affiliation
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2018-11-01
End date
2019-06-30
Keywords
Behavior, Governance
Additional Keywords
Behavioral knowledge, Tax compliance, Administrative communication
JEL code(s)
D91, C93, D83, H26
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study evaluates how SMS communications affect residential property-tax payment behavior. Individual taxpayers with outstanding property-tax liabilities were randomly assigned to a no-message control group or to one of twelve SMS treatment arms. The twelve treatment arms crossed four informational interventions with three behavioral interventions. Administrative payment records were used to measure whether and when taxpayers paid their full annual liability during the study period. A follow-up survey will be conducted after the experiment to explore potential mechanisms.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chen, Yixin, Zhixin DAI and Fangwen Lu. 2026. "Behavioral and Informational Interventions for Property-Tax Compliance." AEA RCT Registry. September 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19570-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The experiment targeted individual taxpayers who had not yet paid their annual property tax. Each treated taxpayer received two separate SMS messages sent in close succession: one containing the assigned informational intervention and the other containing the assigned behavioral intervention. All informational messages provide tax-related information. The richer informational interventions additionally provided personalized information, made the consequences of late payment salient, or combined the two. The three behavioral interventions contained the same call to act promptly but differed in whether they provided a behavioral explanation for delay. The pure control group received no message.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2018-11-01
Intervention End Date
2018-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Tax compliance
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The primary outcome is an indicator equal to one if the taxpayer paid the full amount of the 2018 residential property-tax liability by the end of the experimental period, and zero otherwise.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Tax payment timing
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Number of days from November 20, 2018 until payment or right-censoring at the end of the experimental period.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study sample consists of taxpayers with outstanding annual residential property-tax liabilities. The experimental design consists of twelve treatment arms corresponding to all combinations of four informational interventions and three behavioral interventions. A pure control group receives no experimental message. Taxpayers are therefore randomly assigned to thirteen groups, with randomization stratified by gender, age, and tax liability.
Each treated taxpayer receives two separate SMS messages in close succession: one containing the assigned informational intervention and the other containing the assigned behavioral intervention. Among taxpayers who remain unpaid, a randomly selected subset may receive follow-up messages consistent with their original treatment assignments. In addition, the study includes a complementary follow-up survey to explore potential mechanisms.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
We will conduct a stratified randomization based on gender, age, and tax liability using STATA.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
Around 18,000 individual taxpayers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Around 1,400 individuals in control and each of the twelve treatment groups.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Internal Review Board at EconLab, Renmin University of China
IRB Approval Date
2018-11-02
IRB Approval Number
RUCecon-201811-1
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 31, 2018, 12:00 AM +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 31, 2018, 12:00 AM +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
No clusters
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Around 16,000 individual taxpayers
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Each of the thirteen groups includes approximately 1,200 to 1,300 taxpayers, for a total sample of approximately 16,000 taxpayers.
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials