Nudging Parental Engagement: Do Reminders Improve Shared Book Reading?

Abstract

Engaging citizens in co-producing services is often a challenging task. This study explores strategies to facilitate participation, using the case of shared book reading—a practice widely recognized for enhancing children’s literacy skills. Yet, parents often fall short of their aspirations to read more with their children. We combine a survey experiment and a field experiment in Denmark to assess the effectiveness of reminders as a policy tool to change reading habits. The survey experiment aided in designing the field experiment through identifying the cluster of parents with the highest expected benefit from reminders. The field experiment further examined this group, focusing on parents who reported forgetting to read. Results showed only temporary effects on activity in an online reading platform gradually declining after the first week. The study contributes to the literature on citizen engagement and co-production, highlighting the importance of tailoring strategies to individual differences.