Directing Young Dropouts via SMS: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Although SMS is constantly used to transmit information, little is known about the use of it by public institutions to direct people. This paper presents a field experiment in France about its effectiveness to direct disadvantaged people toward public services. Two types of treatment SMS were provided: one type whose content was written in a formal style; a second type whose style was much informal. All the SMS were individualized and included specific information about the agencies. Results indicate that the SMS had no significant effect on enrollment. There is also no apparent heterogeneous effect according to individual, agency, or location characteristics. In line with other academic evidence, these findings suggest that SMS have very limited effectiveness for directing this population toward public services.