Call first, pay later: stimulating debtors to contact their creditors improves debt collection in the context of financial scarcity

Malte Dewies, Astrid Etman, Inge Merkelbach, Kirsten Rohde, Semiha Denktas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Debtors were stimulated to contact their creditors to negotiate a repayment plan. Contacting creditors was important because debtors were unlikely to repay the debt immediately and upon contacting, debtors could agree on a repayment plan to repay the debt in the long run. Using insights from scarcity theory and nudging techniques, a standard debt repayment letter was adapted and both letters were compared. Experimental results (N = 3,330) provide support for the use of nudging techniques as more debtors agreed on a repayment plan and response rates increased. The results underline the importance of stimulating debtors to contact their creditors.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-18
JournalBehavioural Public Policy
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Mar 2022

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Call first, pay later: stimulating debtors to contact their creditors improves debt collection in the context of financial scarcity'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this