Administrative Burden Analysis

Administrative burden analysis examines the costs that individuals experience when they interact with the state to claim benefits, comply with obligations or access public services. Articulated by Donald Moynihan, Pamela Herd and Hope Harvey in their influential 2015 article, the framework decomposes these costs into three types: learning costs of finding out about and understanding a program, psychological costs of stress and stigma, and compliance costs of the time, paperwork and effort required to participate. The central claim is that burdens are consequential — they suppress program take-up and access — and that they are often the product of political choices rather than mere administrative accident. The analysis makes these hidden costs visible and traces who bears them.