Nudging people to pay their parking fines on time. Evidence from a cluster-randomized field experiment

The timely payment of municipal parking fines signifies people's acceptance regulations, reduces administrative enforcement costs, and prevents additional late-payment fees for individuals. However, public administrations face challenges in enforcing the fines. A large group people fail to pay their on time, which requires actions that can result extra costs payment-related stress. In this study we collaborate with Belgian city Mechelen Behavioral Insights Team Flemish regional government test compounded effects three communicative nudges. i.e., simplification, explicit penalty, social norm, a cluster-randomized field experiment, offenders received either original notification letter, simplified letter accompanied by an reference potential penalties, or penalty norm message. results indicate be nudged but only when multiple nudges are combined used simultaneously.