AEA RCT Registry currently lists 12198 studies with locations in 170 countries.
This study examines how alternative decision procedures affect choices between risky lotteries. In an online, incentivized, within-subject experiment, participants repeatedly choose between pairs of lotteries under six different procedures: direct choice (benchmark), random default, delegation to a random device, randomized advice, and two procedures combining the random default with delegation to a random device or randomized advice. We study whether and how these procedures shift choice behavior relative to direct choice and random default, and whether procedural effects correlate with choice-level and individual-level measures of decision complexity.
Evidence from previous research on survey-based inflation expectations of private households suggests that rounded point forecasts signal heightened subjective expectation uncertainty. This association is typically established through simple correlations between rounding indicators and measures of uncertainty derived from probabilistic expectations. What is missing from the literature is a causal investigation of the effects of changes in subjective uncertainty on rounding behavior. This project aims to fill this gap by conducting a randomized controlled trial in which respondents' subjective uncertainty is exogenously shifted through the provision of external information about the range of inflation or experts' inflation forecasts. We then analyze changes in the frequency and intensity...
In Côte d’Ivoire, as in many developing countries, young graduates from elite schools face a choice between joining the public sector, perceived as a source of stability and social prestige, and turning to the private sector, which is associated with economic dynamism but often with greater insecurity. This study aims to analyze the preferences of high-achieving Ivorian students between public- and private-sector job offers by assessing the value they place on job attributes. We also tested these students’ beliefs by randomly assigning, through an RCT, the results of a similar study conducted in 2024. The questionnaire was administered to students at ENSEA, INPHB, and ESATIC in lecture halls where students had been specifically gathered for the occasion.
Legal or administrative barriers—such as employment bans for asylum seekers—can prevent people from working even when they initially would like to. This study examines whether such temporary barriers reduce people’s willingness to work both during periods of restricted access and after the barriers are removed and explores possible mechanisms driving these effects. In a multi-day online experiment, participants repeatedly choose between a well-paid work option and a lower-paid leisure option. In one treatment, participants are repeatedly prevented from carrying out the work option they choose and are instead assigned to leisure, creating a situation in which access to work is externally restricted. In a control group, participants always have full access to the work option. The main g...
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) serve as a crucial financial bridge for underserved populations, particularly in developing nations where traditional banking services are inaccessible. However, these institutions often face significant operational challenges, including the high costs associated with administering and recovering small loans. Intensive borrower monitoring, frequent field visits, and default risks contribute to higher interest rates and operational costs, making borrowing increasingly expensive for low-income individuals. This research aims to address the challenges of high operational costs by proposing a behavioural experiment that utilises faith-based nudges to enhance cost efficiency. This approach enables MFIs to lower interest rates or Islamic MFIs to reduce their m...
Bangladesh’s ~7,000 brick kilns contribute substantially to air pollution, responsible for 11% of the country’s particulate matter, 22% of black carbon, and 17% of total annual CO2 emissions . In our earlier work, we developed an intervention, Zigzag 2.0 (ZZK2.0), an intervention offering kiln owners and operators low-cost training and technical support in kiln management and insulation. In a randomized controlled trial with 276 kilns in Khulna Division (2022–2023), 65% adopted the two most important components. Adoption led to 24% less coal use per 100,000 bricks, with 21% reductions in both CO₂ and PM2.5 emissions. At the request of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, icddr,b scaled the intervention across 1000 kilns in 2023-25. Yet, brick kiln workers represen...
We provide cash transfers to select households in Cape Town to assess the income elasticity of electricity use, which we measure using administrative data. The RCT is embedded in a larger project to assess the impacts of subsidized electricity prices.
We investigate the attention and influence that scientific evidence receives in online settings. In an online experiment, participants in the role of "senders" view sets of articles based on research studies, and decide which articles to share and what content to provide alongside the article. We vary features of the articles and the communication process to shed light on the drivers of online attention to different types of evidence. In a separate experiment, participants in the role of "receivers" will choose which articles to click on to read more about.
In a 2x3 design, this study investigates three factors that may matter for group and team decision-making and performance in a portfolio allocation task: cognitive composition, independence, and aggregation. Participants are recruited via Prolific, with an emphasis on recruiting retail investors. They are given a hypothetical $1,000 and financially incentivized to design portfolios that maximize realized Sharpe ratios after 3 months. They design a portfolio alone in Round 1 of the task and again as part of a two-member team in Round 2. We plan to recruit 600 participants to form 300 teams. The two-condition treatment variable targets team cognitive composition, i.e., the distribution of thinking styles among teammates. We define thinking styles as approaches to processing information...
We conduct an online experiment where subjects make two types of choices: one involving monetary lotteries and another involving riskless alternatives, the values of which can be computed through simple mathematical operations. The objective of the study is to evaluate whether subjects display similar behaviors in these two environments and to understand why.