AEA RCT Registry currently lists 12869 studies with locations in 172 countries.
Appearance is potentially important in academic settings: in-person/virtual job-talks for academic hiring are common across many fields; personal websites and videos summarizing research articles are becoming standard; speeches and seminars are a routine part of publicizing papers. Are there definitive norms of appearance in academia, or are they more like unspoken rules and are there differences across disciplines? How does the public’s understanding of norms compare against the views of academics? We plan to answer these questions by surveying three groups of respondents—faculty, university students, and lay adults—about their perception of academic job candidates they know to be hypothetical. In particular, we will ask them to rate pictured headshots on perceived competence, professi...
Public health systems ration surgical capacity through waiting times, which can be extremely long for elective surgery in low- and middle-income countries. While waiting, patients make consequential decisions about their health, finances and work, often with limited information. In partnership with a public hospital in Chile, we combine administrative data, a survey and an RCT to study how rationing by waiting shapes patient behavior and which policies can improve its efficiency and equity.
In this study, we investigate the interaction of firms’ price- and wage-setting behavior and their inflation expectations. This wave is conducted to increase the general validity of our previous RCT and to control for additional aspects (e.g., cost expectations). In particular, we study how inflation expectations are passed through into prices and wages. While there is a broad theoretical consensus about the relevance of firms’ price-setting for inflation and economic activity, we know relatively little about how, and to what extent, firms build their inflation expectations into their prices and wages. We analyze these questions using a new firm-level RCT survey conducted in Switzerland. Switzerland provides an ideal setting, as it has a history of low and stable inflation and a flexibl...
This study investigates the effects of platform-based gig work on the workers who perform this type of job. It focuses on two complementary dimensions. First, it studies the effects of gaining access to this type of work. Second, it studies how exposure to the most affluent neighborhoods while performing this work shapes workers’ worldviews, aspirations, political preferences, and attitudes toward the rich. The study will be conducted in São Paulo, Brazil.
Undeclared work remains widespread in many countries and has important consequences for workers, employers and society. Decisions about whether and how much employment to declare may depend on the perceived costs and benefits of declaration and the institutional circumstances in which these decisions are made. We study how people think about employment declaration decisions involving workers and employers in Italy and Spain. We first measure beliefs and views about the costs and benefits of declared and undeclared employment. We then use a randomized information experiment to test whether providing information about these costs and benefits affects beliefs and decisions.
We evaluate the impact of an after school program called "Atrevete Club". The goal of the program is to reduce the likelihood of dropping out among students who are at risk of doing so. We conduct a randomized field experiment in 10 schools involving 3,816 students who are predicted to be above the median level of dropout risk.
We conduct a field experiment in cooperation with an energy efficiency assistance program in Germany. As part of that program, the participating low-income households receive a letter informing them about eligibility for a voucher for replacing their old refrigerator against a new, efficient one. We complement that information letter by three types of nudges. Following classic behavioral economic research, the nudges introduce a gain vs. a loss framing to the information letter. Further, we adopt simplified versions (both in terms of icons and in terms of a checklist) to ease the cognitive burden the low-income households may experience. We study the effect of the nudges on (i) the likelihood that the household requests the voucher and (ii) the likelihood that the household invests in e...
The research team will be partnering with the American Economic Association to launch a three-year randomized controlled trial of the effects of author-anonymized peer reviewing, commonly referred to as "double-blind." This evaluation will involve the AER, AER: Insights, and the four American Economic Journals. In the treatment group, information revealing author identities will be excluded from materials provided to reviewers, and reviewers will be asked to refrain from seeking them out through web searches or other means. The experiment will test the effects of removing author identities from the information routinely provided to reviewers, while recognizing that reviewers may become aware of author identities in other ways. Key outcomes that will be examined include (1) autho...
Indiana lags behind national averages in terms of foster child reunification rates and time to permanency, and is currently one of only six states that does not guarantee direct legal representation for any youth in foster care. Legal representation for children in foster care could shorten out-of-home placement duration by reducing unnecessary removals or placement changes, expediting steps that support timely reunification, and providing an adult confidante trained to advocate for and provide legal counsel to foster youth. This study evaluates the impact of legal representation for youth in the child welfare system. We will identify impact by randomly allocating access to legal counsel provided by Child Advocates, an Indiana-based nonprofit organization. Eligible youth will be randomi...
Access to high quality healthcare is a critical driver of human capital and a cornerstone of broader individual and societal well-being. In Uganda, rural access to health care and to essential medicines remains a persistent challenge; although 86% of Ugandans live in rural areas, only 15-20% of the country’s doctors work in those same areas, which contributes to poorer health outcomes among rural populations. Aside from a few irregular, one-day “mobile clinics” or sponsored medical missions, there are few resources in place for delivering healthcare on a regular basis to people in remote areas. We partnered with Health Access Connect (HAC), a Ugandan-based NGO that coordinates monthly, financially self-sustainable outreach visits by clinical staff from government health facilities to ru...