The Impacts of Expected Personal and Household Benefits on Migration Intentions in Ethiopia

Last registered on April 18, 2023

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

The Impacts of Expected Personal and Household Benefits on Migration Intentions in Ethiopia

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011285

Initial registration date

April 17, 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 18, 2023, 5:20 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Ethiopia

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Anne Krahn

Affiliation

Tufts University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Morgan Hardy

PI Affiliation

New York University Abu Dhabi

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Christian Johannes Meyer

PI Affiliation

University of Oxford

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-04-24

End date

2023-09-30

Keywords

Behavior, Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

In this project, we collect data on expected personal and household benefits to migration and on migration intentions among a sample of jobseekers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We also integrate a survey experiment to understand how migration intentions may be shaped by a potential migrant’s expected personal and household benefits of migrating.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Hardy, Morgan, Christian Johannes Meyer and Anne Krahn. 2023. "The Impacts of Expected Personal and Household Benefits on Migration Intentions in Ethiopia." AEA RCT Registry. April 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11285-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention is a survey experiment which randomly varies the order in which key survey modules appear. These survey modules include:
1. Personal benefits (PB): Beliefs about personal benefits if the respondent were to take a hypothetical job offer and move to the Middle East through formal/informal means, or not take the job offer and remain in Ethiopia.
2. Household benefits (HB): Beliefs about household benefits if the respondent were to take a hypothetical job offer and move to the Middle East through formal/informal means, or not take the job offer and remain in Ethiopia.
3. Migration intentions (MI): The respondent’s self-reported likelihood and interest in moving to the Middle East for a formal/informal job offer in the next 3–6 months.

Intervention Start Date

2023-04-24

Intervention End Date

2023-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

1. Levels of perceived likelihood of moving to the Middle East for a formal/informal job offer
2. Levels of interest in moving to the Middle East for a formal/informal job offer
3. Ranking of migration possibilities (taking the job offer and moving to the Middle East through formal/informal means, or not taking the job offer and remaining in Ethiopia) according to perceived likelihood
4. Ranking of migration possibilities according to interest

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Enumerates outline a hypothetical scenario in which the respondent imagines being offered a job in the Middle East, including the Gulf countries, in the next 3–6 months. We randomize between subjects an additional detail that this hypothetical job offer would require the respondent to migrate to the Middle East through either formal or informal channels. After the enumerator presents this scenario, we ask how long the respondent would expect to migrate for if he/she were to take up this job opportunity and the total costs of migration they expect to face within the first year and cumulatively by the end of the fifth year. We then proceed with the three key modules described above (PB, HB, MI), the order of which is randomized across subjects. The survey concludes with a brief module on migration knowledge and a module on demographic characteristics, migration history, and employment. Additional details are further described in the attached analysis plan.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization of survey module order was completed by researchers using Stata prior to entering the field and preloaded on SurveyCTO.

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

1200 individuals

Sample size: planned number of observations

1200 individuals

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1. 400 individuals in the control (200 randomly receive the order: MI, PB, HB; 200 randomly receive the order: MI, HB, PB)
2. 400 individuals in the Personal Priming treatment (in order: PB, MI, HB)
3. 400 individuals in the Household Priming treatment (in order: HB, MI, PB)

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB