Alleviating administrative burden through digitalization and redesign: a laboratory experiment on student financial aid in Germany

Abstract

Individuals encounter and experience different costs, conceptualized as administrative burdens, when seeking access to social welfare programs. Scholars and practitioners suggest that digitalizing and redesigning application processes could alleviate and shift some of these negative experiences. However, empirical research testing whether real interventions achieve this remains scarce. In a laboratory experiment, we randomly assigned participants (n = 120) to one of two application processes for a student financial aid program: the standard paper-based or a digitalized and redesigned application procedure. Students encountering the latter experienced significantly less administrative burdens, were more satisfied, and completed a higher proportion of process steps. Furthermore, functional literacy improved the experience of the bureaucratic encounter. These findings reveal the potential of redesigning and digitalizing application processes to alleviate administrative burdens.