Grant Recipient: Georgetown University
Principal Investigators: Sebastian Jilke, Ph.D., Georgetown University
Pamela Herd, Ph.D., Georgetown University
Donald Moynihan, Ph.D., Georgetown University
Tracee Saunders, Georgetown University
Term: 2023 – 2024
Funding: $127,719
Summary: This project is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the effect of receiving federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) on mortality among older adults. Administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), the SSI program was established in 1972 to provide a guaranteed minimum income for the poorest elderly Americans, as well as those of any age who are disabled.
This study builds on a 2017 RCT, conducted by SSA in partnership with the Office of Evaluation Sciences, with the goal of increasing SSI take-up. In this well-conducted RCT, the study team identified 4 million individuals aged 65 – 80 who were potentially eligible for SSI and randomly assigned 10% to a treatment group that was sent a letter informing them of their potential eligibility and encouraging them to sign up for SSI. The study found that the notification letters increased SSI applications and led to a statistically significant increase in SSI receipt from 0.5% in the control group to 2.3% in the treatment group.
Under this project, the researchers will leverage the prior RCT and its experimentally-induced difference in SSI take-up to estimate the effect of SSI receipt on mortality using an “encouragement design.” Outcomes will be measured 28 and 52 months after random assignment using administrative data from SSA.
The study’s pre-specified analysis plan is linked here.
