Why don’t Americans save more for old age? Even when their employers promise to match their savings, workers often fail to salt away their earnings for the future, inexplicably leaving money on the table.

Psychology has offered an answer: procrastination. And it has suggested a cure: rather than giving workers the choice to sign up for a 401(k), sign them up automatically and give them the choice to opt out.

The switch has led to a sharp increase in workers’ participation in retirement savings plans. It is perhaps the most successful contribution of so-called behavioral economics to public policy

Yet, though lauded by policy makers as a powerful new tool in the policy kit, the approach poses a risk, too. It fosters a belief that tweaks based on an understanding of people’s psychology could lead to a vastly improved society at little or no cost to taxpayers.....

.....The limits of nudging come into focus in an evaluation by the research firm MDRC of a set of behavioral nudges intended to increase poor fathers’ payment of child support for their children.

In Franklin County, Ohio, careful reminders increased the share of noncustodial parents who paid support, to 51.5 percent from 48.5 percent. In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, text message reminders increased the payment rate to 49.8 percent from 47.3 percent. In both cases, the researchers observed, the payments were quite small.

If the government’s objective was to change the landscape of child support — a critical policy question considering there are 25 million children living with a single parent — this will not be enough.

Policy experimentation is always welcome. But the approach taken in this instance seems to spring from a shaky assumption: Poor noncustodial fathers can afford child support but choose not to pay it. As the MDRC researchers put it, “the modest findings suggest that the targeted noncustodial parents may have a limited ability to pay.” Dealing with that, however, might cost taxpayers real money.

Other behavioral interventions have run into similar hurdles. A recent study by George Loewenstein, a behavioral economist and noted critic of “nudges” from Carnegie Mellon University, with Cäzilia Loibl of Ohio State University and two other colleagues, also suggests that fancy cognitive tricks may fail to overcome the main obstacle faced by the poor: a lack of money.....

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