Preference Formation of Children: The Role of Parents, Peers and Gender

Last registered on January 25, 2018
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Preference Formation of Children: The Role of Parents, Peers and Gender
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002682
Initial registration date
January 25, 2018

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
January 25, 2018, 3:34 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Tanzania, United Republic of
Region
Daressalaam

Primary Investigator

Name
Simon Schürz
Affiliation
University of Gothenburg
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2018-01-22
End date
2018-03-10
Keywords
Education, Welfare
Additional Keywords
preference transmission, social networks, distributional preferences, patience
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Time and other-regarding, distributional preferences are fundamental for individual and collective decision-making and are therefore affecting economic outcomes such as consumption choices, human capital formation and labor market outcomes. Empirical evidence supports the view that these preferences are formed early in life and shaped both within the family and through interaction with peers and close social environments. This project proposes a closer look at the formation of an individual (patience) and a social (otherregarding) preference at an early age of 12-13 years. By measuring preferences at parental, class and friendship level, we explore the role of the close environment in the formation of the child’s attitudes and link them to school outcomes. While both preferences are fundamental for later-life outcomes, we expect differences in peer effects due to their more or less social nature. Using the gender dimension of the close environment we can uncover potential pathways of gender-specific preference formation. To sum up the project aims to address the following main research questions:
• What is the role of parents and peers in the formation of children’s patience and distributional preferences? How does the social environment relate to gender-specific formation?
• Do children sort into preference networks? How do patience and other-regarding preferences in the social network affect child outcomes?
• Are there differences between the individual (patience) and social (other-regarding) preferences?
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Schürz, Simon. 2018. "Preference Formation of Children: The Role of Parents, Peers and Gender." AEA RCT Registry. January 25. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2682-1.0
Former Citation
Schürz, Simon. 2018. "Preference Formation of Children: The Role of Parents, Peers and Gender." AEA RCT Registry. January 25. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2682/history/25280
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2018-01-22
Intervention End Date
2018-03-10

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Experimental preference measures for patience, distributional attitudes
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
School grades, social networks measures
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Experimental Design
The experimental session is conducted with families (mother, father, one child). All subjects will participate in a patience experiment. Fathers and mothers take part in a decision-making experiment. Mothers additionally attend an experiment designed to measure their empowerment in the household. In the following the designs of all three parts are described in detail:
Patience Elicitation: Time preferences are elicited with choice lists with early and delayed payoffs or time-investment exercises. The choice lists used in the experiment additionally allow for a measure of present-biasedness. Subjects will select their preferred choice in a list of 10 decisions per decision sheet. For instance choices are made between upfront payoff of 5000 TSh and delayed payoffs between 5.000
and 10.000 TSh (1 USD ~ 2180 TSh). Starting with equal payoffs the delayed option increases monotonically. Two decision sheets are presented to the subjects in random order. After all choices are made, one list and one decision are randomly selected for payout. Particular focus is placed on trust issues related to the delayed payment option. Using the observed switching point from early to delayed payoff, the future equivalent (FE) is calculated at the midpoint of the two delayed payoffs around the switching point. Normalizing it by the early payoff results in a comparable indicator for patience. The higher the normalized future equivalent, the more impatient is the individual.
Measure for female empowerment in the household: To measure decision-weights in the household I will apply two approaches. The first part consists of a set of question on the decision-making process across various subcategories, such as food, educational expenses and financial decisions. For these questions tie-breaker questions are included to avoid bunching at the joint decision option. Additionally
women’s empowerment, i.e. their decision weight, in the household is measured using an incentivized experiment. Women’s willingness to pay to receive a cash transfer themselves rather than their spouse is directly measured. The design follows a choice list type representation of pre-specified values, for which the mother chooses that the amount is paid either to the father or to herself. The amount for the father remains constant, while the mother’s amount decreases monotonically. Full information on payouts, but not on actual experimental choices, is given to both the woman and the spouse, thereby excluding hiding motives. By randomly assigning starting values, it can be assured that spouses cannot learn about women’s choices from the payouts.
Distributional preferences: Observed economic behavior is consistent with utility functions that include both own material payoff and other’s well-being. The experimental design that we use allows to understand how payoffs for others affect an individual’s utility. Using a double choice list design with a total of 10 decisions, it allows to distinguish between nine distributional types from equality averse to altruistic and inequality averse. The subjects are asked to choose between unequal and equal distribution of payoffs for themselves and an unknown passive subject in a disadvantaged (higher payoff to the passive subject) and advantaged block (higher payoff to the active subject). The passive subject is a randomly chosen real peer in the school class the sample, but unknown to the participant. One of the choices is randomly selected for payout. Additional to the type measure we can use a willingness-to-pay cardinal metric (WTP for an income increase of the passive subject) for the disadvantaged and advantaged block, which facilitates the econometric analysis.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
no randomization, no treatment, preference experiments
Randomization Unit
no randomization, no treatment, preference experiments
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
10-15 school classes (30-40 children + their parents) from 5 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
400 families: 400 mothers, 400 farthers, 400 children
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
400 families: 400 mothers, 400 farthers, 400 children
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology
IRB Approval Date
2018-01-08
IRB Approval Number
2018-12-NA-2017-263
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials