Gender-sensitive experiments to encourage participation and performance in a Business Plan Competition in Mozambique

Last registered on April 26, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Gender-sensitive experiments to encourage participation and performance in a Business Plan Competition in Mozambique
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011264
Initial registration date
April 20, 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, 5:03 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region
Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
DIME, World Bank

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
World Bank
PI Affiliation
World Bank

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-01-14
End date
2024-06-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Entrepreneurship is a promising opportunity for women in Mozambique, but female entrepreneurs in the country continue to face many constraints and are concentrated in small-scale, low-growth, informal businesses in services sectors – similar to many other low- or middle-income countries. A World Bank funded project – Harnessing the Demographic Dividend (HDD, P166100) – is launching a nation-wide Business Plan Competition in Mozambique with the explicit aim of attracting and supporting female-owned high-growth businesses. The winners of the BPC in Mozambique will receive grants, training and mentoring, and access to an internship program. The project specifies that 50 % of all BPC winners must be female, thereby instituting a gender quota. Previous experiences in several African have shown that women are underrepresented among the applicants and winners of BPCs, even though their returns from winning these competitions are at least as large as men’s.

Given this difficulty of attracting female applicants to BPCs, the research team, in collaboration with the HDD project team, will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test different interventions that aim to increase the participants’ likelihood of applying to the BPC and the performance of their businesses within and outside the BPC. Tested against 0) no intervention and 1) a factual control intervention, three different interventions will be employed which aim to mitigate different possible constraints to successful participation in the BPC: 2) a quota intervention that makes the gender quota in the BPC salient and aims to alleviate the constraint that women are less likely to enter competitions against men, and are less competitive when facing male competitors; 3) an inspirational intervention presenting same-gendered role models that aims to boost participant’s aspirations and confidence to enter the competition; and 4) application assistance that aims to reduce the costs of applying and address practical constraints to participation.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Campos, Francisco, Joao Montalvao and Hannah Uckat. 2023. "Gender-sensitive experiments to encourage participation and performance in a Business Plan Competition in Mozambique." AEA RCT Registry. April 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11264-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The research team, in collaboration with the HDD project team, will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test different interventions that aim to increase the likelihood of participants applying to the BPC and the performance of their businesses. Tested against a control intervention, three different interventions will be employed which aim to mitigate different possible constraints to successful participation in the BPC. The interventions will individually be delivered to 6,000 female and male new or existing entrepreneurs, either through tailored videos or scripted in-person intervention. A summary of the interventions is provided here:
0. No intervention (pure control)
1. A core video with factual information about the BPC as a control intervention.
2. A quota video (combined with the core video), which makes salient that the gender quota in the BPC implies that women will only compete against women, and men against men. Laboratory experiments have shown that women are less likely to enter competitions against men (rather than against only women), and are less competitive when facing male competitors. The quota video aims to alleviate this constraint.
3. An inspirational video (combined with the core video), which shows a same-gendered, relatable role model entrepreneur. This video aims to boost participant’s aspirations and confidence to enter the competition, addressing the constraint that women often have lower self-confidence than men and that they may lack same-gendered business role models.
4. Application assistance (combined with the core video), which offers assistance and explanations about filling out and submitting the application form for the BPC. This intervention aims to address practical constraints to participation, e.g. unfamiliarity with filling out forms or language to describe business ideas.
Intervention Start Date
2023-01-14
Intervention End Date
2023-11-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our main outcomes of interest and their data sources are:
• Growth aspirations for the business (exit survey, follow-up survey)
• Attitudes towards gender and competition (exit survey, follow-up survey)
• Intention to apply to the BPC (exit survey)
• Indicator whether respondent applied to BPC (administrative data)
• Business plan quality during pre-screening (administrative data)
• If we see large impacts on the outcomes before and during the BPC, we will also collect measures of business performance: business survival, number of employees and turnover (pre-survey, follow-up survey)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We will also track respondents’ performance in further stages of the BPC (whether respondents passed the pre-screening, whether they won the BPC, and the associated scores) but anticipate that we will not be powered for these outcomes and due to selection effects.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
With equal probability, we will assign in a random fashion 3.000 female and 3.000 male entrepreneurs to one of five treatment arms: (T0) Pure control, (T1) Core Video, (T2) Core + Quota video, (T3) Core + Inspirational Video and (T4) Core Video + Application Assistance. For each treatment arm and gender, we are expecting 600 individuals.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
The randomization is implemented in the field using a pre-prepared code in the CAPI software.
Randomization Unit
The random assignment will take place at the individual level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
6000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1200 individuals in teach of the 5 treatment arms (600 female, 600 male)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
HML IRB
IRB Approval Date
2022-12-19
IRB Approval Number
2164

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials