A perennial task for the state is the creation and policing of categories. State-created categories have real world impacts on the public. The consequences of racial categorizations, for example, are well-documented. We examine a less studied consequence of state categorization, which are the administrative burdens created when individuals attempt to match themselves to state-created categories. Matching requires time and effort, and failure to match to an advantageous category can mean a loss of material benefits. The matching problem may sometimes result from obscure categories, or an overwhelming number of categories. The matching problem is also amplified when the state uses identity categories – such as self-employed or unemployed, a retiree, parent, spouse or disabled – where individuals hold pre-existing beliefs about such identities that map poorly onto equivalent state categorizations. To study the matching problem and ways to reduce it, we undertook a field experiment in a California welfare program, CalFresh, the state version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Claimants often fail to select into the category of “self-employed” even though it would be more favorable for them to do so. We show how a more intuitive presentation of information about the category and its benefits increased the rate of those identifying as self-employed from 8.8% to 12.1%, approximately one-third. We also show that providing a simple self-attestation template to convey information about self-employment status, a means of reducing compliance costs while meeting state documentation requirements, increased the number of claimants providing an acceptable form of documentation to match to the category. The results show that people frequently lack an intuitive understanding of state categories, that the presentation of categories can reduce this matching problem, and that the state can make it easier to document the match.

中文翻译：

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与类别匹配：行政流程中的学习和合规成本

国家的一项长期任务是类别的创建和监管。国家创建的类别对公众具有现实世界的影响。例如，种族分类的后果是有据可查的。我们研究了一个研究较少的国家分类结果，即当个人试图将自己与国家创建的类别相匹配时产生的行政负担。匹配需要时间和精力，而未能匹配到有利的类别可能意味着失去物质利益。匹配问题有时可能是由模糊的类别或过多的类别引起的。当国家使用身份类别时，匹配问题也会被放大——例如个体户或失业者、退休人员、父母、配偶或残疾人——个人对这些身份持有预先存在的信念，这些身份很难映射到等效的州分类上。为了研究匹配问题和减少匹配问题的方法，我们在加州福利计划 CalFresh 中进行了实地实验，该计划是州版的补充营养援助计划 (SNAP)。索赔人经常无法选择“自雇”类别，即使这样做对他们更有利。我们展示了有关该类别及其福利的更直观的信息展示如何将自雇人士的比例从 8.8% 提高到 12.1%，大约三分之一。我们还表明，提供一个简单的自我证明模板来传达有关自雇状态的信息，一种在满足国家文件要求的同时降低合规成本的方法，增加了提供与该类别相匹配的可接受文件形式的索赔人的数量。结果表明，人们经常缺乏对状态类别的直观理解，类别的呈现可以减少这种匹配问题，并且状态可以更容易地记录匹配。