The Legacy of Political Violence, Wellbeing, and Ethnicity: An Experimental Analysis of Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda

Last registered on October 17, 2022

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

The Legacy of Political Violence, Wellbeing, and Ethnicity: An Experimental Analysis of Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0010213

Initial registration date

October 13, 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, 5:31 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Côte d'Ivoire

Region

Country

Uganda

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

John Doces

Affiliation

Bucknell University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Donatien Adou

PI Affiliation

University of Missouri

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2022-10-17

End date

2022-11-08

Keywords

Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Electoral, Governance, Post-conflict

Additional Keywords

political violence, wellbeing, identity

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Across the world the legacy of political violence persists for people often affecting their lives in adverse ways. Past events of political violence often associated with elections continue to threaten people affecting their wellbeing and identities. Existing scholarship shows that the legacy of political violence can inversely affect people's wellbeing and also their identities pushing people to feel less satisfied and to identity more closely with their ethnic group. By reducing wellbeing and causing people to identity more with their ethnic group the legacy of political violence can in turn increase the probability of further political violence. We test these ideas in Africa focusing on a unique comparative analysis in West and East Africa both of which are regions that have experienced past political violence and thus carry its legacy. We specifically examine the legacy of political violence, wellbeing, and ethnic identities. We conduct an experimental analysis treating randomly selected respondents in Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda and treating some with a statement about the legacy of political violence with a control group assigned no statement. We have several claims: (i) respondents treated with legacy of political violence will have lower levels of wellbeing than those not treated; (ii) the treatment effect on wellbeing will be relatively larger for women than men; (iii) respondents treated with political violence will have more ethnic than national identities. As an extension and for purposes of comparison we will test these claims in a nationally representative survey (filled by yougov) of Americans to see if the results are consistent.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Adou, Donatien and John Doces. 2022. "The Legacy of Political Violence, Wellbeing, and Ethnicity: An Experimental Analysis of Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda." AEA RCT Registry. October 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10213-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Interventions will include statements about past political violence tailored to each country's recent past (Cote d'Ivoire, Uganda, and the United States). Each respondent that receives the intervention will read a statement summarizing past events of political violence along with a picture emphasizing the violence.

Intervention Start Date

2022-10-19

Intervention End Date

2022-11-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Key outcome variables include wellbeing (measured by Cantril Index) and ethnic versus national identity as used by Afrobarometer.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experiment will be in the field. Random assignment of treatment and control groups will be done using pre-determined randomized ordering of surveys per enumerator. Respondents will not be compensated.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Surveys will be randomly assigned using a random number generator.

Randomization Unit

Treatment will be randomized at individual level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

This is not a cluster analysis.

Sample size: planned number of observations

In Cote d'Ivoire and Uganda we will collect 320 observations in each country. In the U.S. the survey will collect approximately 1,000 observations.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Treatment group will have 320 observations and control group 320.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Based on prior research, we calculate the power to be 1 with 640 total observations. This is for wellbeing and we have no information for ethnic identity.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB