Selection of Top Politicians - Randomized Survey Experiment

Last registered on March 25, 2015
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Selection of Top Politicians - Randomized Survey Experiment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000667
Initial registration date
March 25, 2015

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 25, 2015, 12:22 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Region
London

Primary Investigator

Name
Matt Lowe
Affiliation
UBC
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2015-03-25
End date
2015-05-07
Keywords
Governance
Additional Keywords
Political Careers, Learning
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The study explores the political careers of backbenchers in UK Parliament, seeking to understand why some progress and others do not. The survey experiment looks in particular at the extent of knowledge each politician has about his/her peers, in the aim of testing the hypothesis that Parliament is (in some sense) actually an information-weak environment.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lowe, Matt. 2015. "Selection of Top Politicians - Randomized Survey Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. March 25. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.667-1.0
Former Citation
Lowe, Matt. 2015. "Selection of Top Politicians - Randomized Survey Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. March 25. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/667/history/3839
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2015-03-25
Intervention End Date
2015-05-07

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
MP-level measures of growth in prominence/position/competence since 2010, as well as MP-level measures of knowledge about other MPs.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
MP respondents will be randomly allocated the name of another MP to answer questions about. The accuracy of the answers will reflect how well one MP knows another (and thus how prominent the other one is).
Experimental Design Details
Specifically, the randomly assigned MP will either be a man/woman and a winner or loser of the private members' bill ballot. The purpose is then to test whether it is ballot winners that have become more prominent/well known in Parliament.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer. Stratified by party-gender (giving 6 strata). Rule-based re-randomization until minimum p-value from pre-set balance regressions is greater than 0.1.
Randomization Unit
Individual-level (MP-level).
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
642
Sample size: planned number of observations
642
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
~160 in each of 4 treatment arms.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
MIT Committee On the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2015-03-23
IRB Approval Number
1501006862
Analysis Plan

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