Gender Specific Project Evaluation and Access to Finance

Last registered on November 29, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Gender Specific Project Evaluation and Access to Finance
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010412
Initial registration date
November 14, 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 18, 2022, 12:09 PM EST

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

Last updated
November 29, 2022, 3:38 PM EST

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Kristina Czura
Affiliation
University of Groningen
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Vojtech Bartos
PI Affiliation
University of Milan
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PI Name
Silvia Castro
PI Affiliation
University of Munich
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PI Name
Timm Opitz
PI Affiliation
Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-11-15
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance, Firms & Productivity, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
We seek to understand what is limiting women's access to finance, in particular for highly skilled start-up entrepreneurs. To investigate supply side constraints, we run a lab-in-the-field experiment in which loan officers in Uganda evaluate several business ideas based on real pitch decks from start-ups. We separate biases in idea evaluation from other constraints (such as gender specific differences in the ability to implement a project, or in external constraints that start-up entrepreneurs are facing). To do so, we randomly vary that loan officers observe an idea as coming from either a male or a female founder, and the idea as being implemented either by a male or female manager.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bartos, Vojtech et al. 2022. "Gender Specific Project Evaluation and Access to Finance." AEA RCT Registry. November 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10412-1.1
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Lab-in-the-field experiment
Intervention Start Date
2022-11-15
Intervention End Date
2022-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
- Probability distribution of success of business on a 3 point scale, unincentivized
- Investment decision (loan-type decision): # of money that is “invested”. Invested money is doubled if the business exists and makes positive profits. Otherwise, it is lost.
- Picking the best-performing business (VC-type decision): Choice about which business is the most successful one. Bonus for correct guess.
- Information choice: # of money invested into acquiring additional information about business.

The pre-analysis plan explains these incentivized measures in more detail and outlines how we analyze these across treatments.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
- Idea quality: survey questions on two dimensions of business idea quality - unincentivized
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
First, loan officers evaluate several pitch decks from real start-ups. The evaluation consists of the incentivized investment decision (see primary outcomes), as well as an unincentivized measure of probabilistic beliefs about the profits of the business. This allows us to compare loan officers’ incentivized evaluations of business success in a standard 2x2 between-subject design, where we vary the dimensions of the founder’s gender and implementer’s gender (male/female). Second, once loan officers have evaluated the pitch decks, they are asked to pick the one they think achieved the highest profits (incentivized). Third, loan officers can request additional information for one selected (payoff-relevant) pitch deck. Lastly, we elicit some questions on gender norms and socio-demographics.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Computerized pre-programmed randomization.

The pre-analysis plan details the randomization procedure.
Randomization Unit
The randomization unit are individual participants
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
300 participants
Sample size: planned number of observations
300 participants taking 5 decisions each = 1.500 pitch deck evaluations
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Each participant evaluates the same 5 pitch decks. Per pitch decks, we have equal sized cells across 5 combinations of gender:
1) founder: female, implementer: female
2) founder: female, implementer: male
3) founder: male, implementer: male
4) founder: male, implementer: female
5) founder == implementer: female or founder == implementer: male

With our planned sample size of 300 participants, there will be 60 observations by distinct participants in each cell. As we will have the same for each pitch deck, there will be 300 observations per gender combination cell (60 participants per pitch deck multiplied by 5 pitch decks).

The pre-analysis plan specifies how we deal with the multiple observations by participant that we elicit.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Gesellschaft für experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung e.V. German Association for Experimental Economic Research e.V.
IRB Approval Date
2022-10-27
IRB Approval Number
UnT8bGwz
Analysis Plan

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