Friction is a policy choice.
Administrative burden — the paperwork, waiting, and complexity required to interact with government — is not inevitable. It is designed. Experiments consistently find that reducing procedural steps increases compliance, reduces errors, and improves equity. The question is not whether simplification works but why governments don't do more of it.
6
experiments
6
positive results
0
null or negative
1
replicated
Key Findings
01
Moving government services online reduces completion time dramatically without reducing quality or accuracy.
Boone County, Missouri's permit application simplification — moving building permit applications online and eliminating unnecessary steps — reduced average permit processing time by 23 days and increased applicant satisfaction. Phoenix's permit processing improvement showed similar results. The consistent finding is that administrative friction primarily burdens applicants with less time, education, or administrative capacity — making simplification a powerful equity intervention as well as an efficiency one.
02
Participatory budgeting increases civic engagement and shifts spending toward lower-income neighborhoods.
Porto Alegre's participatory budgeting — which gave residents direct control over a portion of the municipal budget — produced measurable increases in sewer and water access in lower-income neighborhoods that had previously received little capital investment. The experiment has been replicated in 1,500+ cities worldwide with broadly consistent findings on equity effects. Participatory processes reallocate resources toward neglected neighborhoods when residents have genuine influence over outcomes.
03
SMS and automated reminders dramatically improve compliance with administrative deadlines at near-zero marginal cost.
The UK court reminder SMS experiment found that simple text message reminders to appear in court reduced failure-to-appear rates by 28%. Philadelphia rental license letter experiments produced significant improvements in license renewal compliance. Waiting time SMS notifications in UK government services reduced no-show rates. These interventions work because many compliance failures are not intentional — they result from forgetting, confusion about timing, or procedural complexity rather than resistance.
All Experiments in the Registry
Foreclosure Prevention — Administrative Burden Reduction
positiveUnited States · 2018
Online Permit System Implementation
positiveBoone County, USA · 2021
Rental License Renewal — Behavioral Messaging
positivePhiladelphia, USA · 2020
SMS Wait Time Notifications for NHS Appointments
positiveEngland, United Kingdom · 2012
Business Permit Processing Streamlining
positivePhoenix, AZ, United States · 2019
Porto Alegre Participatory Budgeting
positivePorto Alegre, Brazil · 1989
What the Evidence Cannot Yet Tell Us
What is the equity effect of digital-only government service delivery? Online simplification benefits users with internet access and digital literacy; its effects on elderly, rural, and low-income users without reliable access may be negative.
How does participatory budgeting change political behavior beyond the budget process — does it increase voter turnout, civic trust, or political participation more broadly?
What are the long-run effects of administrative simplification on government capacity — does removing friction reduce errors and improve program integrity, or does it reduce the oversight that catches ineligible enrollment?
Can the SMS reminder model scale to all government administrative deadlines, or does effectiveness decay as reminders become more frequent?