An Intervention about Non-Monetary Returns to College

Last registered on October 17, 2022

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
An Intervention about Non-Monetary Returns to College
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010177
Initial registration date
October 05, 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
October 17, 2022, 3:52 PM EDT

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

Last updated
October 17, 2022, 3:56 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Chicago

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-03-01
End date
2024-08-01
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Non-pecuniary features are shown to be play an important role in students' college enrollment decisions. Using an experiment, this paper evaluates whether one can impact high school students' college going decisions by providing them information about non-pecuniary returns to college.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ersoy, Fulya. 2022. "An Intervention about Non-Monetary Returns to College." AEA RCT Registry. October 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10177-2.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
A video about non-monetary returns to college education
Intervention Start Date
2023-03-01
Intervention End Date
2023-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Students' beliefs about their long term life outcomes
Students' stated probabilities about going to college/continuing their education
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Whether the student took SAT/ACT or PSAT/PACT.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This is a between subject design with repeated measures. There is a treatment group who will see a video about college decisions and non-monetary benefits of college. There is a control group who will see an unrelated video. Students will answer questions about the outcome variables both before seeing the video and after seeing the video.
Experimental Design Details
11th grade students will answer a question about their first-gen status (if allowed by the school administrators) and whether they have taken SAT/ACT. They will be also asked about their patience level and what they intend to pursue after high school. Gender and Free/Reduced Price Lunch status of the student will be obtained from the administrative data. Then, students will be asked their stated probabilities about completing high school/going to college/continuing their education (outcome questions). Then they will be asked their guesses about their long-term outcomes (belief questions). In particular, they will be asked about various non-monetary outcomes and their earnings at age 35, and their probability of having a full-time job at age 35. Then, students in the treatment group will watch a video about non-monetary returns to education whereas students in the control group will watch an unrelated video. Then, students in both groups will re-answer belief questions and outcome questions. Students in the control group will see hypothetical scenarios and will answer questions like "What percentage of your life-time earnings would you be willing to give up to be like Person A rather than Person B?".
Analysis:
-Ordinary least squares regression with robust standard errors. In particular, I will regress outcome variables on Treatment indicator, controlling for covariates and the relevant pre-intervention outcome variables.
-I will also look at treatment heterogeneity effect by gender, free/reduced price lunch status, patience, and first-gen status.
-Robustness: Drop students who reported they skipped the video.
-Only for control group: Using students' answers to belief questions and hypothetical questions, I will calculate how large non-monetary returns are compared to non monetary returns and look at heterogeneity by gender, free/reduced price lunch status, patience, and first-gen status.


Randomization Method
Randomization will be done by Character Lab Research Network.
Randomization Unit
Students
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1000 students
Sample size: planned number of observations
1000 students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
500 students in the control
500 students in the treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Assuming 80% power, 5% alpha. For students' stated probabilities about going to college/continuing their education: Assuming control mean is 0.75 and standard deviation is around 0.30, the minimum detectable effect size is 0.053 percentage points (Around 7%). Calculations are done using STATA's power command.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials