Intra-household Communication and Female Labor Force Participation

Last registered on November 30, 2022

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Intra-household Communication and Female Labor Force Participation
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010192
Initial registration date
October 11, 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, 4:08 PM EDT

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

Last updated
November 30, 2022, 5:44 PM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
MIT Sloan School of Management

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Dartmouth College

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-09-15
End date
2023-10-01
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Female labor force participation (LFP) rates are far below male LFP rates worldwide, and this gap is especially wide in India. There is much policy interest in promoting women’s employment, both worldwide and in India in particular. Intra-household bargaining has been hypothesized to be an important determinant of women's employment. This project will use a randomized control trial to test how improving communication skills for women impacts intra-household communication, bargaining, and female labor force participation.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Kala, Namrata and Madeline Mckelway. 2022. "Intra-household Communication and Female Labor Force Participation." AEA RCT Registry. November 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10192-2.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The treatment is a training in effective communication, designed by an NGO we are partnering with.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2022-10-08
Intervention End Date
2022-11-07

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
(1) Women's employment: (i) any work for income, (ii) sign-up for training and employment program offered by partner firm, (iii) attendance in vocational training, and (iv) attendance in employment post-training.

(2) Index of outcomes husbands and wives disagree about, including women's employment, purchase of a saree, women visiting the market, and women visiting their natal villages.

We will test for heterogenous effects in 1. by baseline disagreement between preferences of husbands and wives regarding the wife’s employment
We will test for heterogenous effects in 2. by baseline disagreement index between preferences of husbands and wives regarding each particular behavior (split at the median)
We will also test for heterogenous effects in 1. and 2. by age of the woman, hypothesizing that younger women may benefit more from the communication training.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
1. Survey and vignette questions on behaviors undertaken when preferences diverge, to distinguish effective communication behaviors from other types of communication as well as from direct bargaining.
2. Wages in the last 90 days
3. Reported preferences regarding female labor force employment and vocational training (measured as interest in implementation partner's vocational training, employment as well as general female labor force employment). We will make an index of these outcomes. This may not change if the program does not change their preferences but is a potential mechanism if it does.
4. Who has the final say in decisions such as food, clothing, large purchases, spending husband's earnings, whether the woman works, and spending her earnings. We will create an index with these variables.
5. Women's interest in own employment, purchase of a saree, visiting the market, and visiting their natal villages. We will create an index with these variables. This may not change if the program does not change their preferences but is a potential mechanism if it does.
6. Whether the woman gives input into decisions such as food, clothing, large purchases, spending husband's earnings, whether the woman works, and spending her earnings. We will create an index with these variables.
7. Gender attitudes regarding female labor force employment
8. Self-reported happiness
9. Lab in the field games, including:
i) Variants of the dictator game:
a) One version of the game will only have the husband decide to share an endowment, with a subset of the couples allowed to communicate first.
b) A second version of the same will include a component where surplus shared by the husband doubles and the wife decides the final split. A subset of the couples allowed to communicate first.
10. Self-efficacy
11. Knowledge of a key component of communication training (see-feel-want concept).
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will conduct a randomized controlled trial with one treatment arm and one control arm. The treatment is a training in effective communication, designed by an NGO we are partnering with. Women will be put into groups with a facilitator who will train them in effective communication techniques. In the control group, women will also be put into groups with a facilitator that will meet on the same schedule as the treatment groups, but with no focused discussion on communication. At the end of the intervention period, women will be invited to participate in a weaving training and employment program set up by our partner firm, a large carpet manufacturer in Uttar Pradesh.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Group
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
240 meeting groups
Sample size: planned number of observations
1540 women
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
120 groups (with 779 women) treatment, 120 groups (with 761 women) control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
MIT
IRB Approval Date
2022-09-13
IRB Approval Number
2208000718

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