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Do knowledge gains from public information campaigns persist over time? Results from a survey experiment on the Norwegian pension reform*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2015

HENNING FINSERAAS ,
NIKLAS JAKOBSSON  and
MIKAEL SVENSSON
HENNING FINSERAAS
Affiliation:
Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Norway Institute for Social Research, Norway
NIKLAS JAKOBSSON
Affiliation:
Norwegian Social Research (NOVA), Norway Karlstad Business School, Karlstad University, Sweden (e-mail: niklas.jakobsson@nova.hioa.no)
MIKAEL SVENSSON
Affiliation:
Karlstad Business School, Karlstad University, Sweden Department of Economics, Örebro University, Sweden
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Abstract

Government authorities use resources on information campaigns in order to inform citizens about relevant policy changes. The motivation is usually that individuals sometimes are ill-informed about the public policies relevant for their choices. In a survey experiment where the treatment group was provided with public information material on the social security system, we assess the short- and medium-term knowledge effects. We show that the short run effects of the information on knowledge disappear completely within 4 months. The findings illustrate the limits of public information campaigns to improve knowledge about relevant policy reforms.

Keywords

H30J26Campaigninformationknowledgepublic

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Pension Economics & Finance , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 108 - 117
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

The research reported in this paper was supported by a grant from the Research Council of Norway (project 210446).

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