Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts
Tax‐preferred health savings devices such as Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer employees potentially valuable financial instruments for directing pre‐tax earnings to eligible medical expenses. Despite their increasing popularity as an employee benefit, howeve...
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
John Wiley & Sons
2020
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| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142622 |
| _version_ | 1855515257151160320 |
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| author | Leight, Jessica Wilson, Nicholas |
| author_browse | Leight, Jessica Wilson, Nicholas |
| author_facet | Leight, Jessica Wilson, Nicholas |
| author_sort | Leight, Jessica |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Tax‐preferred health savings devices such as Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer employees potentially valuable financial instruments for directing pre‐tax earnings to eligible medical expenses. Despite their increasing popularity as an employee benefit, however, there is little causal evidence around individual demand for these accounts. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature, reporting on a randomized controlled field experiment conducted with over 11,000 U. S federal employees in 2017 in order to evaluate the effectiveness of targeted messages designed to increase FSA contributions. Our results suggest that the provision of basic information about FSAs delivered via an emailed employee newsletter did not affect the likelihood of contribution or the contribution level. The addition of statements about the absolute returns or relative returns offered by the accounts similarly had no significant effects, and these null effects are observed despite relatively high email open rates. We discuss explanations for the null results and the policy implications of findings from what appears to be the first health economics experiment analyzing tax incentives around health care savings. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace142622 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | John Wiley & Sons |
| publisherStr | John Wiley & Sons |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1426222024-11-15T08:52:05Z Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts Leight, Jessica Wilson, Nicholas costs consumer expenditure field experimentation taxes randomized controlled trials fiscal policies incentives returns accounts savings health care Tax‐preferred health savings devices such as Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer employees potentially valuable financial instruments for directing pre‐tax earnings to eligible medical expenses. Despite their increasing popularity as an employee benefit, however, there is little causal evidence around individual demand for these accounts. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature, reporting on a randomized controlled field experiment conducted with over 11,000 U. S federal employees in 2017 in order to evaluate the effectiveness of targeted messages designed to increase FSA contributions. Our results suggest that the provision of basic information about FSAs delivered via an emailed employee newsletter did not affect the likelihood of contribution or the contribution level. The addition of statements about the absolute returns or relative returns offered by the accounts similarly had no significant effects, and these null effects are observed despite relatively high email open rates. We discuss explanations for the null results and the policy implications of findings from what appears to be the first health economics experiment analyzing tax incentives around health care savings. 2020-02-01 2024-05-22T12:10:46Z 2024-05-22T12:10:46Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142622 en Limited Access John Wiley & Sons Leight, Jessica; and Wilson, Nicholas. 2020. Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts. Health Economics 29(2): 195-208. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3965 |
| spellingShingle | costs consumer expenditure field experimentation taxes randomized controlled trials fiscal policies incentives returns accounts savings health care Leight, Jessica Wilson, Nicholas Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts |
| title | Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts |
| title_full | Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts |
| title_fullStr | Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts |
| title_short | Framing flexible spending accounts: A large‐scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts |
| title_sort | framing flexible spending accounts a large scale field experiment on communicating the return on medical savings accounts |
| topic | costs consumer expenditure field experimentation taxes randomized controlled trials fiscal policies incentives returns accounts savings health care |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142622 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT leightjessica framingflexiblespendingaccountsalargescalefieldexperimentoncommunicatingthereturnonmedicalsavingsaccounts AT wilsonnicholas framingflexiblespendingaccountsalargescalefieldexperimentoncommunicatingthereturnonmedicalsavingsaccounts |