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Stigma and Labor Supply

Last registered on June 20, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Stigma and Labor Supply
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011041
Initial registration date
March 04, 2023

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
March 13, 2023, 8:47 AM EDT

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

Last updated
June 20, 2024, 7:11 PM EDT

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
UBC

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
UBC
PI Affiliation
UBC

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2023-02-28
End date
2023-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Perceptions of discrimination and of one's own identity can affect how jobseekers behave. We outline a 3-stage labor market experiment in a Brazilian slum (where home address is a stigma, a mark used to discriminate) to understand how jobseekers behave in the labor market in response to changes the salience of their stigma.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Angeli, Deivis, Ieda Matavelli and Fernando Secco. 2024. "Stigma and Labor Supply." AEA RCT Registry. June 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11041-3.0
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We designed a three-stage experiment. In stage 1, surveyors will perform a door-to-door survey with favela residents and ask questions about their socioeconomic characteristics and previous work experiences. During the survey, participants will be asked if they want to share their information with an HR firm, which will send them real job ads from our partner. The participants will also perform a skill test and share their beliefs and attitudes about address-based discrimination.

In stage 2, one to eight days after a jobseeker answers the survey from stage 1, the HR firm contacts that person via WhatsApp with an invitation to apply for a set of real full-time sales jobs. Applicants can then fill out an application form. We randomize whether applicants need to disclose their home address to apply, manipulating whether they can expect to suffer address-based discrimination or not.

In stage 3, we invite eligible jobseekers for an interview. Before the interview, with objectivity as the pretext, the receptionist either tells candidates that the interviewer knows their name only or their name and address.

AMENDMENT (2023-06-21): We have included an information treatment in stage 1. We randomly reveal to some participants the actual callback rates in an audit study in which we sent fictitious resumés from the favela and non-favela neighborhoods for sales positions in Rio. Participants are randomly assigned to receive either i) no information, ii) the estimated callback rate for the favela neighborhood, or iii) the estimated callback rate for both neighborhoods.
Intervention Start Date
2023-03-06
Intervention End Date
2023-08-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
In stage 2:
Progress-related:
- Completing the job application form
- Showing up for the Interview

Effort-related:
- Effort in application form: Length and quality of the text the jobseeker wrote about themselves when applying for the job.

Strategy-related:
- Strategic information disclosure: declaring or omitting information on jobs and courses taken in the favela, inflating the duration of job experiences.
- Share of individuals misrepresenting their addresses when applying to the job (not an outcome per se, but an important descriptive statistic).


Outcomes in stage 3:
- Overall interview performance
- Nervousness as assessed by the interviewer and self-assessed
- Formality/professionalism, as assessed by the interviewer and self-assessed.

AMENDMENT (2023-06-22):

Outcomes for the information treatment:

First-stage belief change:
- Beliefs about our partner HR firm's callback rates for favela and non-favela neighborhoods (measured in stage 1)

Job application outcomes:
- Completing the job application form
- Show up for job interview
- Number of jobs applied for in the last two weeks (measured in endline survey)

Effort-related:
- Effort in application form: Length and quality of the text the jobseeker wrote about themselves when applying for the job.

Strategy-related:
- Share of individuals misrepresenting their addresses when applying to the job
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Stage 2:
- Clicking the job application form.
- Perceptions about the job-search process and interactions with firms after the stage-2 treatment (collected in phone survey, see below)

Stage 3:
- Self-assessed interview performance
- Specific behaviors during interview, that could signal stress or discomfort
- Information disclosure during interview
- Question-wise performance in interview
- Interviewee’s perceptions about the interviewer (professionalism, preparedness) and HR firm (inclusiveness).


AMENDMENT (2023-06-22):

Outcomes for the information treatment:

- Beliefs about the odds of facing discrimination on the job in the future (measured in stage 1)
- Predicted employment and wage gap for someone like the respondent (stage 1)
- Callback probability for own job applications (measured in stage 1)
- Beliefs about job market prospects and address based discrimination (measured in endline survey, Likert scale)
- Sentiments regarding job search (e.g., how excited the jobseeker is, how fair they think the job market is, how much they feel like one has to ignore concerns regarding discrimination in the job market, etc, measured in stage 1)

- Intentions to search more intensively (measured in stage 1)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We will conduct a quality-check + brief survey over the phone with those participating in stage 2, about ten days after they receive the job invite message. This will try to confirm information provided during the door-to-door survey (to assure participation requirements are being enforced), and will also briefly ask about how the jobseeker’s search has progressed.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The design is mainly explained together with the intervention description.

For stage-2 treatments, stage 1 respondents are randomized into one of the three treatment groups with equal probability. We will stratify the randomization by predicted discrimination.

For stage 3, those who completed the job application form are randomized into the two treatments with equal probability. We will stratify the randomization by predicted discrimination and stage-2 treatment status.

AMENDMENT (2023-06-22): The information treatment is randomized with equal probability, without stratification.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by a computer. Randomization will proceed in batches every few days, since all stages overlap.

AMENDMENT (2023-06-22): The information treatment is randomized directly in the offline Qualtrics form, on the spot.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
2500 participants

AMENDMENT (2023-06-22): given the current budget and timeline, we project to have up to N=2100 by August. That means up to about N=700 for the information treatment experiment.
Sample size: planned number of observations
2500 participants AMENDMENT (2023-06-22): given the current budget and timeline, we project to have up to N=2100 by August. That means up to about N=700 for the information treatment experiment.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Stage 2: 833 participants in each arm.
Stage 3: 350 interviewees in each arm, assuming a 35% application rate and 85% interview show-up rate.

Sample sizes are target values and are subject to budget constraints.

AMENDMENT (2023-06-22): Information treatment should have up to about 233 (700/3) observations per arm.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
MDEs for 80% of power at 5% size. Pairwise comparisons of main stage-2 outcomes: - about 6pp (18%), with covariate adjustment (gauged from pilot), for application and show-up rate - 0.14 standard deviation for effort measure Address Omission vs. other arms pooled: - 5.4pp for application and show-up rate - 0.12 standard deviation for effort measure Effort measures: 0-10 subjective scale outcomes in stage 3: 0.2 standard deviations
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Behavioural Research Ethics Board at the University of British Columbia
IRB Approval Date
2023-01-24
IRB Approval Number
H22-03418

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 31, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
August 31, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Address Omission Experiment: N=1,303
Interview Experiment: N=422
Information Experiment: N=690

See the article draft (under the new title "Expected Discrimination and Job Search") for more details.
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials