AEA RCT Registry currently lists 12083 studies with locations in 170 countries.
This study aims to draw on insights from behavioral economics to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of alternative unconditional cash transfer designs in Kenya. The study's implementing partner, GiveDirectly, which provides unconditional cash transfers to poor households in rural Kenya, will be experimentally varying several features of these transfers. One area of focus will be the timing of transfers, where GiveDirectly will vary the structure and schedule of transfer payments, as well as recipients' control over these timing aspects. A second area of focus will be the role of social information and norms, varying the amount and kind of information recipients receive about assets purchased by their peers. This study will exploit the variation across these different designs to quanti...
Tutoring stands out as a highly effective educational policy for improving student outcomes, but its implementation is hindered by issues of scalability and cost. One solution involves equipping teachers with enhanced skills in utilizing Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) to simulate the tutoring experience at a lower expense. A recent evaluation of this approach, called "Khoaching with Khan Academy" demonstrated meaningful improvements in standardized math test scores for elementary students whose teachers were randomly assigned to receive such assistance, as compared to students whose teachers did not benefit from it. Although this intervention successfully enhanced average math scores, the study also highlighted significant variations in CAL practice time both within and across classro...
We study the effects of a novel state-developed digital ID product under alternative distribution methods on poor and vulnerable households in a northern Nigerian state. By randomizing who receives the initial distribution of ID cards, we will be able to evaluate the effects of the cards on citizens’ social protection and financial outcomes, and whether changes in these domains affect economic well-being. We will also randomize how the ID cards are distributed to recipients in order to assess equity-efficiency trade-offs in the delivery of tangible social protection products. The findings from this study will inform policy recommendations for the state government’s planned expansion to all 9 million residents while contributing to the broader literature on how identification programs af...
We will conduct a lab experiment to evaluate interventions that leverage blockchain features to promote truth-telling. Specifically, we test how information transmission noise can promote truth-telling. Note on changes: This version adjusts the planned sample size from 100 participants to 172 participants. This update is due to a recalculation of statistical power based on data from a pilot experiment.
This study investigates how information about soil pollution affects market behavior. We will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine how different forms of information disclosure (private vs public) affect decisions by intermediaries, sellers, and buyers. The experiment is designed to identify both direct effects of information on treated units and general equilibrium spillovers to untreated units. By varying the recipient of private information, we also test how asymmetric access to environmental information shapes strategic behavior. The results will contribute to our understanding of market responses to environmental information, the behavioral consequences of selective transparency, and the design of information disclosure policies.
Low-income households in urban Mozambique frequently face unexpected emergencies such as illness, theft, fires, floods, or job loss. These shocks often lead to sharp income losses and force households to adopt harmful coping strategies, including selling productive assets or reducing food consumption. Formal financial tools, such as insurance, are poorly suited to these risks, particularly in informal urban settings. This study evaluates whether emergency loans managed through community savings groups can help households better cope with such shocks. We conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial with savings groups in the second largest urban area of Mozambique. Savings groups randomly assigned to the treatment arm receive a one-time external loan to establish an emergency loan fu...
We conducted an audit study where trained potential investors visited securities firms in China during both bearish and bullish stock market conditions. Across all market conditions, women were consistently given more conservative financial recommendations and were advised to allocate a smaller proportion of their investments to stocks compared to men. Additionally, during bearish periods, financial advisors offered female investors significantly higher commission discounts than male investors, whereas less significant differences in discounts were observed during bullish periods.
Incarcerated populations have skyrocketed in most parts of the world over the past decades. How does incarceration affect people’s lives? Identifying the causal effects of incarceration has proven challenging because of the many unobservable external factors (such as pre-existing differences in personality and criminal attitudes) that threaten the validity of a comparison between incarcerated and non-incarcerated people. We study the psychological, social, economic, and health consequences of short-term incarceration using a randomized controlled trial (RCT). We build on the US cash bail system, which in theory provides a financial incentive for court appearance but in practice may impose a high burden for subjects with lower socio-economic status. The study offers recently arrested p...
This randomized controlled trial (RCT) examines the impacts of a publicly provided digital clinic that offers digital primary care services to consumers. Our intervention grants access to a public digital clinic that provides chat-based primary care consultations via a mobile phone application and website, including care needs assessment, diagnoses, follow-up care recommendations, and prescriptions. The digital clinic supplements traditional public primary care services, including in-person visits and phone consultations. The trial takes place in Ostrobothnia, Finland, a healthcare district serving a population of 178,000 residents. We randomize access to the digital clinic at the household level, providing access to 50% of the households. By doing so, we aim to evaluate whether digital...
Commercial agglomeration is observed in many parts of the world. There are several theoretical explanations as to why commercial clusters occur, but empirical research is limited. This study attempts to examine the mechanisms of commercial agglomeration by surveying wholesalers located in one of the major wholesale markets in an emerging Asian country. When the market was destroyed by a fire in 1994 and rebuilt in 1997, about 1,400 slots were randomly assigned to garment wholesalers by a lottery. By collecting historical data over the past 25 years, we will analyze how the initial random allocation was transformed into the clustering of product types observed today. By taking advantage of the setting where a large number of similar-sized firms in the same industry operate, we conduct a ...