Workers' preference for firms

Last registered on September 27, 2022
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Workers' preference for firms
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010084
Initial registration date
September 19, 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
September 27, 2022, 11:09 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Brighton Chotiputsilp
Affiliation
RSM
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-09-21
End date
2022-10-11
Keywords
Firms & Productivity, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
According to survey findings, active job seekers significantly overestimate young
firms’ exit rates—64 percent (belief) vs. 20 percent (actual). Do young firms pay
for workers’ incorrect beliefs? Analyzing the resume data, young firms are matched
with a weaker pool of candidates, yet wages at young firms are higher for the
observationally equivalent workers. This hiring pattern is largely driven by the labor supply
as evidence from job ads does not show any difference between old and young firms’ labor
demands. In this paper, I will run a series of experiments to show 1. Job candidates
have incorrect beliefs about exit rate and performance of young firms 2. Job candidates
demand a higher premium from this incorrect belief 3. Simple information provision
about small young firms’ performance can help improve hiring in young firms.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chotiputsilp, Brighton. 2022. "Workers' preference for firms ." AEA RCT Registry. September 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10084-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Information provision about firm's exit rate in the US
Intervention Start Date
2022-09-21
Intervention End Date
2022-10-11

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to accept/to pay estimates for different types of firms/employers
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The willingness to pay or to accept is an estimate from standard discrete choice experiment using conditional logit or mixed logit model.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Heterogeneity analysis for different type of workers--eg workers with different characteristics, traits and initial beliefs about young firms.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
I will invite 300 people to take part in an online survey through Prolific. The first part of the survey will collect baseline information such as demographics, past employment, expected salary for their next jobs as well as their understanding of young firms. Most importantly, I will elicit participants' beliefs about young firms survival/exit rates.

The main intervention is information provision about the firm survival rates in the US. A randomly selected half will be given information and another half will be in the control where no information is given.

After the intervention both group will enter into a discrete choice experiment, where participants will choose a hypothetical job/employer they prefer the most from a menu of three different jobs/employers. Participants repeat this task up to 8 times. These hypothetical jobs are created such that the traits of the jobs are randomized from a fixed set of traits eg firm age, firms size, financial rating, career growth rating, salary.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
randomization done in office by a computer (Qualtrics)
Randomization Unit
individual level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
300 subjects across two treatment arms
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
150
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Rotterdam School of Management IRB-E
IRB Approval Date
2022-08-18
IRB Approval Number
ETH2223-0035
Analysis Plan