AEA RCT Registry currently lists 12129 studies with locations in 170 countries.
This is a repository for the collaboration between the Oxford Center for Macro-Experimental Development, GiveDirectly, STEG, and BITSS collaboration for studying the macroeconomic effects of large-scale unconditional cash transfers implemented by GiveDirectly in Malawi. As part of the collaboration, teams of macro-development researchers work on structural analyses of the macroeconomic impacts of cash transfers. Here is a rough timeline: 1. Jul 2025: All teams visited study sites in Malawi ex-ante and were able to suggest/propose experimental design and questionnaire additions. 2. Jan - Apr 2026: All teams were shared baseline data on housheolds, enterprises, markets, and prices from Chiradzulu District. Teams are encouraged to pre-register structural analyses as a condition f...
There is a debate in the literature as to whether dispersed or compressed wage structures enhances individual and organizational performance. We study how to design an incentive structure in an environment with two heterogeneous players using a lab experiment.
This study examines how individual differences in loss sensitivity relate to perceptions of wealth and behavior in incentivized investment decisions. The project uses a two-wave online experiment with US adults recruited through Prolific. We measure individual gain and loss utility parameters using a preference elicitation method following Abdellaoui et al. (2016), along with incentivized investment choices. We then re-invite a subset of participants and use an allocation task with randomized framing, alongside survey modules on perceptions of wealth inequality, perceived financial vulnerability, attitudes toward investing, financial socialization, and financial delegation. The two-wave structure enables within-person analysis linking individual-level preference parameters to subsequent...
Climate change-induced salinization (CCIS) poses a significant public health threat in low-elevation coastal zones like Bangladesh, degrading drinking water quality and contributing to adverse outcomes, including hypertension and reduced productivity. While these risks are increasingly documented, critical evidence gaps persist regarding effective, scalable interventions that foster the sustained adoption of safe water alternatives, particularly given behavioural barriers such as cost sensitivity and taste acclimatization. This project aims to fill this gap through a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) in Khulna, Bangladesh, an area severely impacted by CCIS. We propose to experimentally evaluate an innovative intervention that combines subsidies for desalinated water with target...
In many developing countries, elections are often accompanied by political violence. A recurring pattern is the escalation of protest beyond its initial target—from resistance against the government to attacks on civilians, media organizations, and private property. We term this grievance-exceeding protest, distinguishing it from grievance-directed protest targeting government actors. Using the case of Bangladesh’s 2024 uprising, we hypothesize that the perceived success of such escalation may have embedded grievance-exceeding protest into citizens’ democratic norms. We argue that misperceptions about political opponents sustain this norm: citizens overestimate opponents’ tolerance for grievance-exceeding protest, generating a security-dilemma dynamic in which both sides retain violent...
We study whether ideological alignment and descriptive-norm (popularity) cues drive policy diffusion among Spanish municipalities. Municipalities receive an email offering a free Wikipedia update service and information about prior adopters. We experimentally vary (i) whether highlighted prior adopters are ideologically aligned or cross-partisan relative to the recipient, and (ii) whether the email implies high or low adoption rates. The 2×2 factorial design (plus two popularity-only arms and a pure control) allows causal identification of alignment effects, popularity-cue effects, and their interaction. The pre-analysis plan is attached as a supplementary document.
Adolescence is a critical developmental stage characterized by identity formation and increased sensitivity to interpersonal relationships. During this period, individuals may engage in self-silencing, which is the repression of ideas, feelings, and personal needs in order to preserve harmony in relationships, may occur during this time (Jack & Dill, 1992). Self-silencing is connected to negative psychological effects, such as identity discomfort, anxiety, and depression, even though it may have short-term social benefits (Cramer & Thoms, 2003; Harper & Welsh, 2007). When adolescents struggle to develop a cohesive sense of self, a crucial developmental task outlined in Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory, identity difficulty arises (Erikson, 1968). Compassion-based interventions, particu...
We study how high-school students form beliefs and plans about post-graduation academic programs, and how targeted information shapes these choices. Using a chatbot-based interaction system powered by agent AI using large language models (LLMs), we conduct large-scale conversational interviews with students across Germany to elicit their interests, expectations, and intended educational trajectories as well as the reasoning of those. Embedded in the chatbot is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to identify the causal effect of two informational treatments: (i) personalized guidance on educational and occupational pathways aligned with each student's mentioned trajectory, and (ii) concrete examples of institutions offering these and alternative pathways. This design enables us to meas...
This study examines whether different policy interventions can help rural households use clean cooking fuel (LPG) more regularly and reduce dependence on traditional biomass fuels such as firewood and dung. Although many households in India now have access to LPG, continued and consistent use remains limited because of affordability constraints, behavioural habits, and difficulties related to refill access and convenience. The study is being conducted in rural districts of Odisha, Jharkhand, and Telangana in India. Households with LPG connections but irregular usage patterns are participating in the study. Villages are randomly assigned to different intervention groups, including: (i) LPG refill price support, (ii) behavioural information and reminder messages, (iii) refill convenien...
Climate change is progressively transforming agricultural systems across developing countries, reducing productivity and increasing income uncertainty for smallholder farming households. While most existing evidence focuses on adaptation to realized climate shocks, less is known about whether information about long-run climate change risks affects intergenerational investment decisions before such shocks materialize. We study whether providing information about future climate change in Egypt alters farming households’ expectations about viability of agriculture as an occupation for their children. Egypt provides a compelling setting because climate change is happening through gradual increases in temperature and slow-onset environmental change, which are likely to progressively reduc...