From Delay to Payday

A field experiment covering over 25 million poor citizens varied bureaucrat access to “PayDash”, a digital application providing wage processing information for India’s workfare program. PayDash reduced wage processing delays by 1.4 days, boosted work provision by 10%, and reduced managerial changes by 24% without affecting audit-detected misconduct. PayDash had similar impacts when provided to managers, supervisors, or both, indicating substitutability and implying that information frictions constrained implementation by hindering coordination rather than by enabling man- agerial rent-seeking. Investing $1 in PayDash lowers payday loan interest payments for liquidity-constrained households by over $7, while enabling 63 additional days of paid work.