Gender norms, couples' labor supply decisions, and flexibility in working conditions in Colombia

Last registered on November 04, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Gender norms, couples' labor supply decisions, and flexibility in working conditions in Colombia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010082
Initial registration date
November 03, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
November 04, 2022, 1:37 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Luz Magdalena Salas
Affiliation
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Ana Maria Diaz
PI Affiliation
Universidad Javeriana
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PI Name
Marie Boltz
PI Affiliation
University of Strasbourg
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-09-25
End date
2024-06-30
Keywords
Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
DCE, social norms, female labor market participation, bliefs
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We aim to study how gender norms – tasks sharing, and gender roles - affect intra-household decisions about labor market participation and the likelihood for each spouse to accept flexible work arrangements. We will first conduct a baseline survey representative for cohabiting couples in Bogotá to elicit gender norms concerning labor market participation and willingness to accept flexible jobs. The objective is to identify whether Colombia is a context of pluralistic ignorance, namely whether Colombians hold an opinion, but mistakenly believe that others hold the opposite opinion. As a result, individuals behave in ways that are incongruent with their personal opinions and congruent, instead with what they mistakenly believe to be the norm. Contingent on finding this evidence, in a second step, we will conduct a discrete choice experiment among couples where we will measure how the willingness to work and the propensity to accept flexible work will vary by gender and according to experimental variations: (i) the presence of the other spouse when making one’s choices, (ii) providing or not the information about what is the average preferences of other couples from the same neighborhood about female labor force participation and male and female willingness to accept a flexible job. This project will make an original contribution by drawing a direct link between the growing literature on the demand for flexibility at the workplace and the one on intra-family decisions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Boltz, Marie, Ana Maria Diaz and Luz Magdalena Salas. 2022. "Gender norms, couples' labor supply decisions, and flexibility in working conditions in Colombia." AEA RCT Registry. November 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10082-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name
Innovations for Poverty Action
Type
ngo
URL
https://poverty-action.org/

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We aim at studying how gender norms – tasks sharing, gender roles - affect intra-household decisions about labor market participation and the likelihood for each spouse to accept flexible work-arrangements. We will first conduct a baseline survey representative for cohabiting couples in Bogotá, in order to elicit gender norms with respect to labor market participation and willingness to accept flexible jobs. The objective is to be able to identify whether Colombia is a context of pluralistic ignorance, namely whether Colombians hold an opinion, but mistakenly believe that others hold the opposite opinion. As a result, individuals behave in ways that are incongruent with their personal opinions and congruent, instead with what they mistakenly believe to be the norm. Contingent on finding this evidence, in a second step, we will conduct a discrete choice experiment among couples where we will measure how the willingness to work and the propensity to accept flexible work will vary by gender and according to experimental variations: (i) the presence of the other spouse when making one’s choices, (ii) providing or not the information about what is the average preferences of other couples from the same neighborhood about female labor force participation and male and female willingness to accept a flexible job. This project will make an original contribution by drawing a direct link between the growing literature on the demand for flexibility at the workplace and the one on intra-family decisions.
Intervention Start Date
2022-09-30
Intervention End Date
2023-12-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
First and second-order beliefs about gender norms and labor supply decisions of men and women
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
a. Reconstructing beliefs

The experimental sample will include couples of parents of children between 2 and 7 years of age. Participants will answer the same incentivized survey that baseline participants responded (gender norms beliefs). Then, we will randomly assign each couple to one of four experimental groups. The assignment will be stratified.

The four treatments are the following (the discrete choice experiment is presented in the next section).

T0 (no information + without the presence of the other spouse): control group. Sample: married couples. Women and men will participate in the discrete choice experiment separately, no information will be provided about population beliefs on labor gender norms.

T1 (information + without the presence of the other spouse): we will provide information about population beliefs on labor gender norms to each spouse separately – making sure that the interview takes place at the same time in two different private places. Then, each spouse will participate in the discrete choice experiment separately.

T2 (no information + with spouse presence): a sample of couples will participate in presence of the other spouse in the discrete choice experiment. The couple will not receive any information about population beliefs on labor gender norms.

T3 (information + with spouse presence): we will provide information about population beliefs on labor gender norms to the couple (both wife and husband). Then, they will participate in the discrete choice experiment in the presence of the other spouse.

b. Discrete-choice experiment on labor-supply decisions:
Our main outcomes of interests are the participants’ labor supply decisions that we will elicit by using a discrete choice experiment.
We will elicit the willingness to work under different working arrangement and the willingness to pay for more flexibility using a discrete choice experiment. Participants will be asked to consider among three employment opportunities in a hypothetical situation. Both, women and men will be asked to consider their status quo relative to two alternative options that vary in terms of flexibility and employment status and job flexibility of the couple. Using this information, we are able to contrast first and second order beliefs about gender norms with this set of preferences for labor market participation for couples.

Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Couples with children
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
TBD
Sample size: planned number of observations
TBD
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
TBD
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
TBD
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
INNOVATIONS FOR POVERTY ACTION IRB – USA
IRB Approval Date
2022-09-10
IRB Approval Number
16438
Analysis Plan