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Senegal Solar Lights Quality Assurance and Guarantee Impact Evaluation

Last registered on December 19, 2019

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Senegal Solar Lights Quality Assurance and Guarantee Impact Evaluation
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002632
Initial registration date
December 11, 2017

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
December 13, 2017, 1:47 PM EST

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

Last updated
December 19, 2019, 1:20 PM EST

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Leibniz University Hannover/ The World Bank

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
The World Bank

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2018-03-01
End date
2020-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In many sub-Saharan African economies, solar lighting product regulation is weak, with low-quality products being able to enter the market and mimic higher-quality products, resulting in distorted quality signals for buyers. Our baseline data show that consumers have difficulties in differentiating between good quality and bad quality technologies. The consequence is an inflated demand for the latter (i.e., there exists market spoilage) and potential welfare loss (Schmalensee, 1982; Wilde, 1981).
The proposed study has two objectives. First, it aims to examine pilot interventions aimed to overcome the problem of imperfect information faced by Senegalese consumers when choosing among different lighting products. We test whether pilot interventions can close the consumer’s information gaps and therefore counter market spoilage, i.e., increase demand for Lighting Global certified products relative to inferior products. Our results are of direct relevance for Lighting Africa (LA) whose primary goal is to expand access to better lighting for low-income households by developing third-party quality assessments of various lighting products aimed at accelerating market growth of quality solar products and countering market spoilage by inferior products.
The second objective of the proposed study is to examine the development impacts of the provision of high quality solar lanterns to provide evidence for the alignment between LA’s activities and the World Bank’s goal of reducing extreme poverty.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Coville, Aidan and Arndt Reichert. 2019. "Senegal Solar Lights Quality Assurance and Guarantee Impact Evaluation." AEA RCT Registry. December 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2632-4.0
Former Citation
Coville, Aidan and Arndt Reichert. 2019. "Senegal Solar Lights Quality Assurance and Guarantee Impact Evaluation." AEA RCT Registry. December 19. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2632/history/59297
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
- Provision of information about quality of solar lighting products and guarantee schemes
Intervention Start Date
2018-09-24
Intervention End Date
2018-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to pay
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Individual-level random assignment of measures to overcome information problem about solar lighting product quality
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
households
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
150 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
1500 households
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
300-600
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Solutions
IRB Approval Date
2018-08-17
IRB Approval Number
Protocol #2016/03/4

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
November 30, 2018, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials