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Administrative ProcessPersonalizationPositive

Rental License Renewal — Behavioral Messaging

City of Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections Department · Philadelphia, USA · 2020

Summary

Philadelphia tested three message frames for prompting rental license renewal. All outperformed the control, but the frame emphasizing what the landlord personally gains from compliance ('protect your investment, renew on time') performed best for driving online registration—the first step in the renewal funnel. This adds to the body of evidence that benefit-to-actor framing outperforms civic duty appeals for compliance tasks.

Research question

"Which letter framing most effectively increases rental license online registration and renewal?"

Methodology

Intervention

Randomized to: control, standard reminder, personal benefits emphasis, city benefits emphasis

Assignment

Randomized controlled trial (license holder)

Sample size

11,579 rental license holders

Primary outcome

Online account registration; renewal rate

Effect estimate

All treatment arms outperformed control; personal benefits framing marginally strongest for registration

Decision

Personal benefits framing adopted for renewal outreach

Result

Positive

All treatment arms outperformed control; personal benefits framing marginally strongest for registration

Evidence strength

Strong

Randomized controlled trial with large sample.

Replication status

Open for replication

Institution

City of Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections Department

Location

Philadelphia, USA

Year

2020

Policy area

Administrative Process

Mechanism

Personalization

Other trials of this mechanism

Cite this entry

City of Philadelphia Licenses and Inspections Department. (2020). Rental License Renewal — Behavioral Messaging. The Experiment Society Registry. Retrieved from https://www.experimentsociety.org/registry/philadelphia-rental-license-letters (primary report: https://journal-bpa.org/index.php/jbpa/article/download/207/99/1679)

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Open for replication

Could your jurisdiction test this?

This finding has not yet been independently replicated. A replication in a new context — a different city, country, or population — is one of the highest-value contributions to the evidence base. If your team could host a replication, we can help with study design, sample-size estimation, and analysis.

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