The Effect of Information Provision on Minority Retention in Undergraduate Economics

Last registered on February 12, 2024

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

The Effect of Information Provision on Minority Retention in Undergraduate Economics

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011202

Initial registration date

April 22, 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

April 26, 2023, 5:27 PM EDT

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

Last updated

February 12, 2024, 5:43 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

Anjali Pai

Affiliation

University of California, San Diego

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2023-04-05

End date

2024-09-01

Keywords

Behavior, Education

Additional Keywords

Diversity in Economics, Intervention, College majoring

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

This study tests whether low-touch information provision can overcome barriers to entry in the undergraduate Economics major that may disparately impact underrepresented minority students, students from lower socioeconomics backgrounds, and women. I run a large-scale field experiment in an undergraduate Principles of Microeconomics course that examines the effect of information provision on students' beliefs about Economics, short-run course performance, and subsequent enrollment and majoring decisions.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Pai, Anjali. 2024. "The Effect of Information Provision on Minority Retention in Undergraduate Economics." AEA RCT Registry. February 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11202-2.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2023-05-01

Intervention End Date

2023-06-13

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Belief updating about research topics, careers, expected income, and diversity in the field of Economics; academic performance in Principles of Microeconomics; probability of enrollment in a subsequent Economics course in an academic term following the intervention; academic performance in subsequent Economics courses conditional on enrolling; probability of declaring an Economics major during undergraduate years

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

The "belief updating" outcomes will be constructed from data collected in the baseline and endline surveys. For each belief-elicitation question on the baseline and endline surveys, a "belief updating" outcome is defined as the difference between the accuracy of beliefs at the endline and the accuracy of beliefs at the baseline. For questions on research topics and careers associated with a degree in Economics, "accuracy" is defined as the number of correctly selected research topics or careers. For the question regarding income associated with a degree in Economics, "accuracy" will be defined as the distance between the student's income ranking of Economics amongst other fields and the true position of Economics in an income ranking (based on 2020 income estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Data on academic performance with come from internal course data in Principles of Microeconomics, with consent from the instructor and students. Data on probability of enrollment in future Economics courses, academic performance conditional on enrollment, and probability of declaring an Economics major will come from the university Registrar's office.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Types of courses (i.e. math versus social sciences versus engineering) students are enrolled in during the academic terms following the intervention; majors selected as an alternative to Economics (for those students who do not declare an Economics major); feelings of belonging in the field of Economics

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Types of courses selected and alternative majors selected will come from University Registrar data. ``Feelings of belonging" will be measured as an index constructed from four Likert Scale questions in the endline survey. Details of this index are outlined in the pre-analysis plan.

Experimental Design

Students participate in two surveys designed to identify their beliefs about the field of Economics and their self-reported likelihood of taking another Economics course or majoring in Economics. The first survey, administered toward the start of the academic term, contains a set of demographic questions in addition to the questions about beliefs. The second survey, administered toward the end of the academic term, contains additional questions about students' connectedness to other students in the course.

After the end of the academic term, data on students' final course letter grades for Principles of Microeconomics and their declared majors will be collected from the university Registrar's office. Each quarter after the intervention, the following data on students will be collected from the Registrar's office: the list of all courses enrolled-in each quarter, final performance in each course, and major(s) declared.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

The study uses a fixed-effects blocked individual randomization design. Randomization cells will be defined by a subset of 5 strata measured at baseline. In order of importance, the strata are: URM-status (binary variable where a student is marked as URM if they identify with any of the following ethnicities - Black, Latino, Mexican, Native American/Pacific Islander, American Indian); gender (binary variable defined as female vs non-female); course section (four values, defined by the section of the course the student is enrolled in); highest level of education attained by a parent (three bins defined as "less than a four-year degree", "four-year college degree", "post-graduate degree"); and international-status (binary variable defined as international vs. domestic). Missing values in each of the demographic strata (URM-status, gender, parental education, and international-status) are treated as their own "bin".

At minimum, the sample will be stratified by URM-status, gender, and course sections. If sample size allows, the sample will be additionally stratified by bins of parental education and by international-status (in that order). Either the latter or both of these strata may be omitted if including them would lead to a large number of randomization cells with less than two observations.

Within each cell, randomization occurs at the student level. Within each cell, every student has a 50% chance of being assigned to the treatment or control group. A detailed explanation of the randomization process is included in the pre-analysis plan.

Randomization Unit

Individual student

Was the treatment clustered?