Effects of a Tax-Time Savings Experiment on Material and Health Care Hardship Among Low-Income Filers

Material and health care hardship is common among households with low incomes and is associated with a host of adverse financial, health, and social outcomes. But recent evidence has suggested that these outcomes can be mitigated with modest savings. Using data from the Refund to Savings Initiative, a team of CSD researchers assessed whether R2S interventions informed by behavioral economics can positively impact hardship among a sample of low- and moderate-income tax filers (N = 4,738). The authors find that filers who received an intervention had a statistically significant, lower probability of both types of hardship 6 months after tax filing, compared to the control group.

Project: Refund to Savings