Receipt-Verified Point Incentive System

In Simple Words

Think of a store loyalty card that gives you reward stamps: if you just tell the cashier you bought something, you get nothing, but if you show them your physical receipt, they stamp your card. Once your card is full, you trade it in for a gift voucher at the counter.

Research question

Self-reported transaction data in financial field experiments often suffers from measurement error, under-reporting, and falsification. Implementing photo-verification backed by convertible reward points increases accuracy and reporting compliance.

Participants

4,458 retained Filipino migrants in the UAE logging remittance data over 30 weeks.

Study Design

In-app point reward structure requiring participants to upload photo receipts showing recipient name, phone number, currency amount, and transaction date to earn variable points toward a threshold.

Results

Reaching 100 points awarded a 25 AED ($6.81 USD) gift certificate; the verification mechanism successfully generated high-quality, verifiable weekly panel data across 137,927 observations.

Takeaway

Incorporate receipt photo upload requirements paired with convertible point rewards in data collection applications to verify self-reported financial behavior.

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