TY - JOUR T1 - Nudging Demand for Academic Support Services: Experimental and Structural Evidence from Higher Education JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour DO - 10.3368/jhr.0221-11474R2 SP - 0221-11474R2 AU - Todd Pugatch AU - Nicholas Wilson Y1 - 2022/03/09 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2022/03/01/jhr.0221-11474R2.abstract N2 - We conducted an experiment designed to increase demand for academic support services among more than 2,100 students at a large U.S. public university. The intervention shifted student attention and increased service use, but also revealed behavioral biases. Structural estimates using the experimental variation suggest that transaction costs well in excess of plausible opportunity costs explain relatively low service use. Moreover, one-third of students are never attentive to student services. Message characteristics also matter. Several common nudging techniques—such as text messages, lottery-based economic incentives, and repeated messages—either had no effect or in some cases reduced the effectiveness of messaging. ER -