Household bargaining and take-up of social benefits: Experimental Evidence from Saudi Arabia

Last registered on July 01, 2019

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Household bargaining and take-up of social benefits: Experimental Evidence from Saudi Arabia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0004318
Initial registration date
June 18, 2019

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
July 01, 2019, 2:32 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Yale University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2017-10-02
End date
2018-02-19
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We conduct an experiment and show that participants are significantly more likely to apply to a social benefits program when provided an encouragement that includes information on financial privacy, than when provided benefits information or encouragement addressing social stigma.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hanna, Rema and Rohini Pande. 2019. "Household bargaining and take-up of social benefits: Experimental Evidence from Saudi Arabia." AEA RCT Registry. July 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4318-1.0
Former Citation
Hanna, Rema and Rohini Pande. 2019. "Household bargaining and take-up of social benefits: Experimental Evidence from Saudi Arabia." AEA RCT Registry. July 01. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/4318/history/49053
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2017-10-02
Intervention End Date
2017-12-13

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Application to Hafiz program (a social benefits program)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The sampling frame for the study was the beneficiary database of AlNahda, a top Saudi non-profit that aims to empower women. Between October and December 2017, enumerators sought to reach, via phone calls, the approximately 10,000 women in the AlNaha database. To the best of our ability and knowledge, 746 women were eligible for Hafiz and, thus, participated in our survey and experiment.
At the end of the short baseline survey, each woman was randomized into the experimental treatments. The randomization was at the individual level by Qualtrics, with each subject having an equal probability of receiving each of the four treatments.
A woman randomized into the first “pure control” group was simply thanked for her participation. A woman randomized into the second “benefits information” treatment group was provided the “information” that a cash transfer unemployment assistance program Hafiz existed. This treatment was intended to evaluate whether a lack of program information, or mis-information, was a constraint to enrollment.
A woman randomized into the third “social stigma” treatment group was provided information on Hafiz (as in information treatment) and in addition told that it was a program with broad take-up with three million women having benefited from it. In addition, all information provided (including registration) was confidential to the general public.
The final “family constraint / financial privacy” treatment provided information on Hafiz (as in information treatment) and, in addition, that a May 2017 law ensured that women did not need approval from family members to apply for social services, and that payments could directly go into an account that they themselves control.
Text messages were sent the following day, a week after the call, and then again about 3 weeks after the call, that reinforced treatments and provided the program registration link for those in the three treatment groups.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by Qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Not Applicable
Sample size: planned number of observations
9,820 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
188 individuals in control, 185 in benefits information treatment, 187 in stigma information treatment, 186 in privacy information treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Comparing our control group to those in our privacy information treatment we calculate a minimum detectable effect size for our main outcome of “probability of applying for Hafiz” for three different powers. For 90% power, we calculate a minimum detectable effect size of 0.0849; the expected privacy information treatment mean is 0.1168 probability, with a standard deviation of 0.3106. For 80% power, we calculate a minimum detectable effect size of 0.0734; the expected privacy information treatment mean is 0.1053 probability, with a standard deviation of 0.3106. For 70% power, we calculate a minimum detectable effect size of 0.0651; the expected privacy information treatment mean is 0.0970 probability, with a standard deviation of 0.3106.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Unemployment and Employability: Experiment to study labor market outcomes of joining Hafiz women
IRB Approval Date
2017-04-19
IRB Approval Number
IRB17-0207

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