AEA RCT Registry currently lists 9394 studies with locations in 169 countries.
Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries by teaching basic financial and marketing practices, yet the impacts of such programs are mixed. We test whether a psychology-based personal initiative training approach which teaches and promotes a proactive mindset that focuses on entrepreneurial behaviors can have more success. A randomized controlled trial in Togo assigned microenterprise owners to a control group (N=500); a leading business training program (N=500); or to personal initiative training (N=500). Four follow-up surveys track firm outcomes over two years and show personal initiative training increases firm profits by 30 percent, compared to a statistically insignificant 11 percent for tra...
This study will experimentally examine the impacts of offering access to an AI-based emotional well-being and mental health phone app to low-income Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. The app offers a chatbot to deliver psychological support based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques, among other tools.
In today’s educational landscape, students are exposed to online learning on a daily basis. This study aims to address the effectiveness of different online teaching modes on students' performance and engagement. To explore this question, we will work with students who voluntarily enroll in the course American Contract Law I taught by Professor Ian Ayres at Yale Law School, offered in Coursera.
Youth employment is a burning issue in Africa. With low levels of formal education and a very narrow formal sector, promoting productive self-employment is critical. Several constraints hinder the creation and development of successful businesses, including the lack of management skills and the lack of startup capital. In Benin, the Government is investing 0.5% of GDP into a national Youth employment program aimed at addressing those constraints. The proposed evaluation will use an RCT to study the relative impacts of providing basic business training, providing start-up capital, or providing both, on employment outcomes for youth as measured 12 and 24 months after the program. Particular emphasis will be put on the analysis of gender-differentiated impacts, with adequate sample sizes a...
Social protection interventions in the Sahel have overwhelmingly consisted of emergency responses to rising international food and fuel prices or to droughts and other climate shocks. To meet long-term poverty reduction goals, governments are shifting towards a broader safety net approach to protect the chronically poor and invest in their human capital. In Mauritania, a nation-wide social cash transfer program (Tekavoul) is being rolled-out with the goal of reaching 100,000 extremely poor households by 2020. Beneficiaries receive 15,000 Ouguiyas (US$ 50) every three months for a period of five years, conditional on participation in social promotion activities addressing hygiene, nutrition, education, civil registration, and child development. The impact evaluation aims to measure t...
This randomized controlled trial (RCT) investigates the impact of perceived beliefs about gender and science aptitude on senior high school students' academic choices and performance in China. The study begins with baseline surveys of students and their parents to assess the formation of students' perceived beliefs and to identify any misconceptions between students, their peers, and their parents. Following this, the study implements an intervention wherein accurate information about peer and parental beliefs, as well as academic outcomes, is provided to students in the treatment group. The RCT will evaluate whether this intervention influences students' academic performance and their subsequent academic decisions.
We combine a large-scale field experiment with a customized survey to study whether and how consumers use firm disclosure. In a sample of more than 24,000 U.S. households, we first establish several stylized facts: (i) the average consumer has a moderate preference to purchase from ESG-responsible firms; (ii) consumers typically have no preference for more or less profitable firms; (iii) consumers rarely consult ESG reports and virtually never use financial reports to inform their purchase decisions. In our field experiment, we then inform households about real firm-disclosed profitability and ESG activities through seven randomized information treatments. Consumers increase their purchase intent when exogenously presented with firm-disclosed positive signals about environmental, social...
We conduct randomized survey experiments with US and Canadian residents to study attitudes toward market-based transactions, with a specific focus on whether and how people perceive and elaborate tradeoffs between competing values and goals. In our survey, participants will express their views and preferences over scenarios where companies increase the prices of certain goods in particular circumstances and scenarios where public authorities prohibit these price increases. Our sample will include 4,000 Americans and 4,000 Canadians and it will be representative of the respective populations in terms of gender, race and ethnicity, age, and educational attainment.
A first study in schools in rural Madagascar evaluated the effect of a bundle of hygiene-focused interventions in schools and showed substantial improvements in girls’ learning outcomes (+0.2SD). Building on these results, this study will run a second RCT to disentangle the effects of physical infrastructure from all the other components of the intervention (sensitization and sanitary pads). This separation is crucial for cost-effectiveness analysis (since physical infrastructure is expected to account for about 60% of the per-head intervention cost), and for understanding the mechanisms through which expanding access to infrastructure can complement female empowerment interventions. The study will measure effects on learning, psychosocial wellbeing, and a variety of secondary outcomes.
This study seeks to understand the role of intermediaries in the Medicare market. Specifically, we investigate how quality of insurance advice is correlated with consumer and agent characteristics.