Behavioral Approaches to Incentivize Gift Card Redemption among Kindergarteners' Parents in Chicago

Last registered on December 27, 2024

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Behavioral Approaches to Incentivize Gift Card Redemption among Kindergarteners' Parents in Chicago

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011206

Initial registration date

April 07, 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 13, 2023, 3:52 PM EDT

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

Last updated

December 27, 2024, 4:19 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Chicago

Primary Investigator

Name

Haoxuan Liu

Affiliation

University of Chicago

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Ariel Kalil

PI Affiliation

University of Chicago

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Susan Mayer

PI Affiliation

University of Chicago

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2023-04-10

End date

2023-05-15

Keywords

Behavior, Education

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

This experiment plans to explore how behavioral tools affect parents' redemption rate of an online gift card. From 2021 to 2022, the Early Investment Project (EIP) by us, the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab at the University of Chicago, surveyed around 2000 parents with kindergarteners in the Chicago Public School system. For parents who completed the survey, we offered them a $20 gift card through an online gift card platform. We also provided $89 to a subset of parents who won the raffle from one survey question. By March 2023, we found out that, among 1932 parents in the EIP survey sample, 887 parents had yet to redeem the gift cards. To increase the gift card redemption rate with two behavioral approaches, we plan to separate these parents into two treatment groups and one control group. All groups will receive brief information through text messages and emails about the gift card with a link. Besides, one treatment group will receive a short sentence that encourages them to buy something for their children with the gift card. The other treatment group will receive a short sentence that phrases the gift card's value to an equivalent hourly wage. We will send these text messages and emails once a week for four consecutive weeks. We are interested in comparing the redemption rate among groups and its heterogeneity by baseline parental characteristics.

Round 2:
To increase the power for heterogenous treatment effect analysis, we plan to add another 312 parents who did not redeem the git card from a different project, AboutTime Experiment 1 and RCT. These 312 parents will be evenly split into the control group and the treatment group which will receive a short sentence that encourages them to buy something for their children with the gift card. Other experiment design and analysis remain the same.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Kalil, Ariel, Haoxuan Liu and Susan Mayer. 2024. "Behavioral Approaches to Incentivize Gift Card Redemption among Kindergarteners' Parents in Chicago." AEA RCT Registry. December 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11206-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Parents who have yet to redeem the gift cards will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or to a control group. All groups will receive brief information through text messages and emails about the gift card with a link. Besides, one treatment group will receive a short sentence that encourages them to buy something for their children with the gift card. The other treatment group will receive a short sentence that phrases the gift card's value to an equivalent hourly wage. We will send these text messages and emails once a week for four consecutive weeks.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2023-04-10

Intervention End Date

2023-05-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Redemption rate of the gift cards

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Our sample size is 887 parents, among whom 764 parents have a balance of $20, 53 parents have a balance of $89, and 70 parents have a balance of $109. For the 764 parents with the $20 balance, we randomly assign them to two treatment groups and one control group evenly. All groups will receive brief information through text messages and emails about the gift card with a link. Besides, one treatment group (parental identity group) will receive a short sentence that encourages them to buy something for their children with the gift card. The other treatment group (hourly wage group) will receive a short sentence that phrases the gift card's value to an equivalent hourly wage. For the 53 parents with the $89 balance and the 70 parents with the $109 balance, they will be randomly assigned to either the control group or the hourly wage group evenly. For all the groups, We will send text messages and emails once a week for four consecutive weeks.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

We conduct the randomization procedure using a statistical software program.

Randomization Unit

Our unit of randomization is a parent.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

We don't design clusters, so the planned number of clusters is 887 parents.

Sample size: planned number of observations

887 parents

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

For the 764 parents with a $20 balance, 255 parents are assigned to the parental identity group, 255 are assigned to the hourly wage group, and 254 are assigned to the control group.

For the 53 parents with an $89 balance, 27 are assigned to the hourly wage group, and 26 are assigned to the control group.

For the 70 parents with a $ 109 balance, 35 are assigned to the hourly wage group, and 35 are assigned to the control group.

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

For the 764 parents with a $20 balance randomized in three groups, the MDES is .25 SD with a significance level of .05 and 80% of the power. For the 53 parents with an $89 balance randomized in three groups, the MDES is .79 SD with a significance level of .05 and 80% of the power. For the 70 parents with a $109 balance randomized in three groups, the MDES is .68 SD with a significance level of .05 and 80% of the power. If we pool three groups with different balances together and compare the redemption rate between the hourly wage group and the control group, we have 632 parents. The MDES is .22 SD with a significance level of .05 and 80% of the power.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB