icaretire: a digital education program on retirement preparedness

Last registered on May 03, 2023
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
icaretire: a digital education program on retirement preparedness
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011338
Initial registration date
April 27, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
May 03, 2023, 4:24 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Luisa Blanco Raynal
Affiliation
Pepperdine University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-01-01
End date
2024-06-30
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Finance & Microfinance, Labor
Additional Keywords
retirement
JEL code(s)
G53, J26, J16, Z13
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We propose to design, implement and evaluate a digital educational intervention to promote better financial planning for retirement among adult Hispanics who are currently working and have access to a retirement account through their employer. This pilot study will be the first to test a digital educational program to promote planning for retirement among adult Hispanics using culturally tailored educational material to address the informational needs of this group.

The specific aims of this intervention are:
1. Design a digital educational intervention that incorporates behavioral economics principles in order to encourage Hispanics to begin or increase saving for retirement
2. Implement a pilot test of this digital educational intervention in order to determine the effect on the primary outcomes of retirement knowledge and saving, as well as the secondary outcomes of financial self-efficacy and engagement with digital program.

Participants will be invited to review material in the website https://www.icanretire.com/, which is hosted by the Capital Group.


External Link(s)
Website

Registration Citation

Citation
Blanco Raynal, Luisa. 2023. "icaretire: a digital education program on retirement preparedness." AEA RCT Registry. May 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11338-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Partner

Name
Understanding America Study
Type
ngo
URL
http://uasdata.usc.edu
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We propose an 8-week digital education program to provide information about retirement preparedness that has been culturally tailored to Hispanics. Material for this intervention has been designed to meet the informational needs of this group based on previous research. Participants will receive one text message per week and will be invited to complete activities in the icanretire website, such as watching a video, reading information, doing a quiz or using an interactive tool like using a retirement saving calculator. More details to be provided as an update of this initial submission.
Intervention Start Date
2023-05-08
Intervention End Date
2023-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1) Retirement Knowledge Scale
2) Retirement Savings
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
1) Retirement Knowledge Scale (RKS): we use the measure developed by Blanco et al. (2020). This scale measures three important areas related to retirement knowledge and preparedness: 1. Reflection about retirement plans (questions 1 and 2); 2. Engagement with information related to financial planning for retirement (questions 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7); and 3. Evaluation of retirement preparedness (questions 8, 9 and 10). Further details are discussed in https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4305160.

2) Retirement Savings: We use measures from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), that specifically ask how much people are currently saving for retirement, and participants get the option to provide their answer as a dollar amount or as a percentage of their income.
Both measures are self-reported.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Interaction with the educational material and website. To provide more details later
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants will be assigned randomly to either a treatment or a control group. The treatment group will be receive a text message and an email to invite them to complete one activity per week. The control group will not receive any nudge to learn more about retirement preparedness besides providing the link to the website icanretire.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
557 participants were invited to complete consent and baseline survey
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
TBD
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Biomedical Research Alliance of New York LLC Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2023-03-13
IRB Approval Number
22-030-1044
Analysis Plan