AEA RCT Registry currently lists 12514 studies with locations in 171 countries.
This laboratory experiment studies how individuals use generative AI tools to complete computer-based, cognitive tasks, and how the productivity effects of AI vary across users with different baseline skill profiles. Participants complete problems in two domains: 'analytical' and 'social'. The experiment has two phases. First, participants work without AI. Second, participants are randomly assigned according to a 2×2 design that crosses AI access (AI vs. no AI) with a brief intervention (practical AI training vs. active control). We measure task performance, beliefs about own performance, AI usage from chat logs, and a range of baseline cognitive and personality measures.
We experimentally test whether individuals' causal belief systems are well described by the workhorse model of the literature on causal cognition and misspecified mental models: Causal Bayesian Networks (CBN). We ask two questions. First, are belief systems rationalizable by the theory that individuals process data through the lens of a CBN or a distribution over CBNs? Second, do individuals' beliefs and choices exhibit the comparative statics predicted by the literature on misspecified learning? Participants interact with computer-generated systems involving binary variables, make incentivized choices, and report beliefs about causal relationships.
Despite widespread access to online job postings, large disparities in employment outcomes persist among similarly qualified candidates, suggesting that informational frictions extend beyond vacancy access. This paper argues that process knowledge about how hiring processes operate is a key and understudied source of advantage. Unlike vacancy information, process knowledge is unevenly distributed through social networks and is strategically costly to share in competitive, rank-order selection environments. Using a lab-in-the-field experiment with university students in Pakistan competing for real jobs, the paper causally examines how access to process knowledge affects information-sharing behaviour.
Will be made available upon project completion. Further details are in the Pre-Analysis Plan.
This study investigates whether social identity influences hiring outcomes in the Turkish labor market using a randomized correspondence experiment. Fictitious job applications with equivalent qualifications, work experience, and education will be submitted to publicly advertised vacancies across multiple occupations and regions in Türkiye. The applications will differ only in the applicant’s signaled ethnicity and gender. Employer responses, including callback invitations, requests for additional information, and rejections, will be recorded to measure differential treatment during the initial stage of recruitment. The study also examines whether hiring outcomes vary across occupations, sectors, regions, and over time. The findings will contribute to a better understanding of hiring di...
This study evaluates whether information treatments can affect tax compliance intentions among informal sector business owners and operators in Zambia. The informal sector represents a critical but largely untapped source of tax revenue, and many informal businesses remain outside formal systems even when the direct financial costs of compliance are relatively low. This suggests that non-financial barriers, including limited information, weak trust, and low perceived reciprocity between taxation and public services, may shape formalization and tax compliance decisions. The experiment is implemented among informal sector operators drawn from an informal business sampling frame. Respondents are individually randomised into one of four arms: a placebo control group, a simplified registrat...
This online field experiment studies whether information about referral status encourages or discourages persistence in a multi-stage application process for a talent recognition program at a university in Colombia. Eligible students are invited to apply for the award. The application is a three-stage assessment process in which the top 25 percent of applicants receive a certificate of excellence and a subset of certificate recipients receive monetary prizes. Before invitations are sent, faculty members and eligible students nominate up to four eligible students through online surveys. Students are randomized within three mutually exclusive referral-status blocks: students nominated by faculty, students nominated by peers, and students who were not nominated. Within these blocks, the ex...
This project explores whether a digital persuasion approach can shift entrenched gender and masculinity norms in India. Partnering with Karya – an organization that provides digital employment to economically disadvantaged communities across India – this study randomly assigns workers to read, transcribe, and annotate content designed either to subtly challenge traditional gender norms or remain gender neutral. By leveraging insights from social psychology, including motivated reasoning and subliminal priming, I investigate if implicit cues, rather than explicit messages, can more effectively unravel rigid patriarchal norms among adults. This randomized field experiment uniquely applies persuasion through AI-generated content, aiming to reveal mechanisms by which routine tasks can influ...
This study evaluates whether a low-cost information-clarification intervention can increase initial behavioral responses among households that remain unconnected to the public sewer system in Date City, Fukushima Prefecture. The intervention consists of a sewer connection encouragement leaflet inserted into the municipal newsletter. The leaflet clarifies where households can seek consultation, what they can learn through consultation, and how they can take the first step without committing immediately to construction. The study is implemented as a phased-in cluster-randomized controlled trial. Constructed clusters of administrative aza units are randomly assigned to either a first-wave group receiving the leaflet through the July 2026 municipal newsletter or a second-wave group receivin...
This study evaluates whether an artificial intelligence (AI) tool can improve job search outcomes for young people seeking work in Argentina. The project focuses on applicants to a youth employability program who were not admitted to the program but are actively looking for employment. Participants will be invited to use an online AI-based chatbot designed to help them better identify their skills and build a formal skill-based CV. The tool aims to help users better understand how to formulate and communicate their skills towards employers. The study uses a randomized controlled design. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned either to receive access to the AI tool or to a comparison group that does not receive access during the study period, but completes a placebo task. All p...