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Do healthy home checklists nudge people to test their home for radon? Evidence from a randomised control trial

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  • Howe, Jane
  • Shreedhar, Ganga

Abstract

Radon degrades indoor air quality and is the leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. We examined if a ‘Healthy Home Checklist’ nudged households to purchase a radon test online. We used a cluster randomised control trial with 15,043 households across 22 postal route groups in Ottawa. Treated households were mailed postcards with a checklist that framed testing for radon as a routine action to check air quality and keep a healthy home. It also included a vendor website link where people could buy a test kit online. The control group did not receive a postcard. More test kits were purchased in the treated clusters but the takeup was low – only seven tests were purchased in the treated groups and one test in the control. Our result suggests that this nudge was not necessarily cost-effective.

Suggested Citation

  • Howe, Jane & Shreedhar, Ganga, 2020. "Do healthy home checklists nudge people to test their home for radon? Evidence from a randomised control trial," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 139564, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:139564
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    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/139564/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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