AEA RCT Registry currently lists 12127 studies with locations in 170 countries.

Most Recently Registered Trials

  • Behavioral Interventions to Address Climate Change-Induced Salinization in Bangladesh
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    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...

  • Misperceptions, Protest Norms, and Democratic Stability: How Cross-Partisan Beliefs Shape Political Violence in Post-Authoritarian
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    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...

  • Policy Diffusion, Popularity Cues, and Ideological Alignment: An RCT with Spanish Municipalities
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    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.

  • Feasibility of Compassionate Mind Program on Reduction of Self Silencing and Identity Distress among Adolescents: Randomized Controlled Trial
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    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...

  • AI and Study Choice
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    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...

  • Can Clean Cooking Transitions Reshape Time Allocation and Economic Activity? Experimental Evidence from Rural India
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    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 Information and Parental Aspiration for Children’s Education: Experimental Evidence from Rural Egypt
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    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...

  • Expressive Skills, Academic and Noncognitive Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial in Chinese Schools
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    This study will evaluate the causal impact of a structured expressive skills training program on students’ academic performance. We aim to conduct a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) across around primary and junior secondary schools in China, involving over 6000 students. Classes are randomly assigned to either an expressive skills training program (treatment classes) or a control group. The intervention consists of six structured training sessions delivered over a 3-month period, together with a list of assignments. The control group receives time-matched routine schooling. We will measure expressive ability, non-cognitive skills, and academic performance at the student level using multiple informants, including academic scores, student self-reports, parent surveys, and t...

  • Economic Incentives, Artificial Intelligence, and Labor Productivity
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    This study examines how economic incentives affect workers’ adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and how the productivity effects of AI vary across incentive regimes. We conduct a randomized laboratory experiment in which participants complete several cognitive tasks under different payment schemes and AI access or pricing conditions. The design allows us to study whether payment rules and AI-use costs shape participants’ willingness to use AI, the way they interact with AI, and their task performance. The main outcomes include AI adoption, AI use behavior, and labor productivity. The study aims to provide evidence on how workplace incentives and AI-use pricing jointly shape human-AI collaboration.

  • Teen Smartphone Usage
    Last registered on May 18, 2026

    We will conduct a survey experiment among high school students in Tel Aviv. One group of participants will receive information on addictive behavior related to smartphones and social media and its dangers. A second group will be exposed to a testimony from a teenager who suffered from her use of smartphones and social media. A control group will not be exposed to any information. We will study the effects on perceived optimal smartphone usage, the expected effects of decreasing smartphone usage, attitudes toward school smartphone policy, and willingness to decrease smartphone usage. We will also randomize (in a student and teacher survey) whether questions ask about what would happen if one student decreased smartphone usage or all students in the class decreased their usage.