The Devil Is in The Pre-Tales: A Closer Look at Women's First Months in Industrial Work

Last registered on March 27, 2018

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Devil Is in The Pre-Tales: A Closer Look at Women's First Months in Industrial Work
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002802
Initial registration date
March 26, 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
March 26, 2018, 8:11 PM EDT

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

Last updated
March 27, 2018, 3:48 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Vassar College

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
European University Institute
PI Affiliation
New York University Abu Dhabi

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2018-03-26
End date
2019-01-01
Secondary IDs
Abstract
With the rise of industrial parks and low-wage low-skill manufacturing positions, more individuals (especially women) are moving from the informal labor market to the formal market. Previous studies have shown the long-run impacts of working in in these manufacturing positions to be mixed across a diverse array of contexts and outcomes (Heath and Mobarak, 2015; Atkin, 2009; Kagy, 2017). A recent study shows high rates of early turnover for workers randomly offered factory jobs outside of Addis, Ethiopia, alluding to potential early negative experiences in industrial employment in the Ethiopian context (Blattman and Dercon, 2018). This project has two objectives. First, using detailed high frequency data it will document the experience of newly hired women working in Ethiopian manufacturing, examining the level and evolution of their economic empowerment and household bargaining power as they move through their first three months of employment. We will explore how these measures of well-being interact with both these women’s baseline characteristics, as well as later absenteeism, retention and performance on the job. Second, this project will evaluate how giving individuals information about (1) how to make a financial plan given their income sources and their expenses, and (2) information about their own time preferences may improve upon these welfare and job outcomes.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hardy, Morgan, Gisella Kagy and Christian Meyer. 2018. "The Devil Is in The Pre-Tales: A Closer Look at Women's First Months in Industrial Work." AEA RCT Registry. March 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2802-2.0
Former Citation
Hardy, Morgan, Gisella Kagy and Christian Meyer. 2018. "The Devil Is in The Pre-Tales: A Closer Look at Women's First Months in Industrial Work." AEA RCT Registry. March 27. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2802/history/27294
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention evaluated in this project will teach women financial planning tools and give them information about their own time preferences, which are elicited during the baseline interview.
Intervention Start Date
2018-03-27
Intervention End Date
2018-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcomes are women's empowerment and bargaining power.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Detailed descriptions of how outcomes will be constructed are given in our pre-analysis plan. We will have measures of financial empowerment, bargaining power (via household expenditures), aspirations, decision making, women's mobility, attitudes towards domestic violence and women's political representation.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Job performance, Job absenteeism, Job retention
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Detailed data from the firm on job performance, absenteeism and retention will be obtained.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment will be a cross cut randomization of the financial planing training and being provided information on time preferences. There will also be a group for whom only administrative data is collected.
Experimental Design Details
The experiment will be an encouragement design with a cross cut randomization of the financial plan training and being provided information on time preferences. Respondents will come from the universe of new employees at a garment factory in Addis Ababa. The randomization will create five groups:

1. Financial Planning: This group will receive a information and training on how to make a financial plan, and habit forming tools to keep to the plan. In this intervention respondents will receive a financial planning journal where they can write out a financial plan for the next 3 months. This journal encourages respondents to form a habit of checking in on their financial plan by internalizing a simple routine. The routine has 3 components: 1) creating a trigger (i.e. every Sunday afternoon you do this), 2) At this specified time you devote energy to making note of your expenses and income that week, 3) Reap rewards of making progress on your financial plan. Enumerators explain the journal to respondents and work with them to write down their financial plan for the next month. Respondents receive a hard copy of the journal they take home and note their progress in.

2. Financial Planning + Information: This group will receive the same financial planning journal as the first group, plus additional information about how patient or impatient they are. The respondent’s score of impatience comes from the survey and will be pre-populated, so the enumerator can easily write it in the financial journal for the respondent. Enumerators explain the financial journal to respondents, along with what their impatience score means, and work with them to write down their financial plan. Respondents receive a hard copy of the journal, with their score of impatience to take home and note their progress in.

3. Information: This group will only receive information about how patient or impatient they are.

4. Control: The group will not receive an intervention. Respondents will complete all of the survey but no information about their time preference or how to make a financial plan.

5. Non-Study: This group will not be interviewed, but administrative data will be collected from the firm.

For all groups we will obtain administrative data from the firm.

Data will be collected from participants at baseline, follow-up phone calls every two weeks after baseline and an endline survey three months after baseline.
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
No clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
840 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
110 individuals control, 110 individuals financial planning journal, 110 individuals information on time preferences, 110 individuals financial planning journal and information on time preferences

400 individuals administrative data only
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
New York University Abu Dhabi
IRB Approval Date
2018-03-25
IRB Approval Number
020-2018
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