Knowledge about EU funds, trust and attitudes towards the EU

Last registered on September 29, 2023
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Knowledge about EU funds, trust and attitudes towards the EU
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011294
Initial registration date
April 27, 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
May 03, 2023, 4:23 PM EDT

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

Last updated
September 29, 2023, 1:06 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Italy
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
SILVIA VANNUTELLI
Affiliation
Northwestern university
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Veronica Grembi
PI Affiliation
University of Rome, La Sapienza

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2023-05-03
End date
2023-05-19
Keywords
Education, Gender, Governance, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We conduct large-scale surveys of Italian citizens and information treatments about a very large EU-financed transfer scheme (the Next Generation EU) to understand a) if and why there exists a gender gap in policy literacy and b) how policy knowledge affects trust and attitudes towards the EU.
In the first part of the analysis, we want to understand whether women are more or less informed than men, if so, whether the gaps are driven by differences in confidence or actual knowledge gaps. We also aim to test whether women respond differently to communication about the program based on the type of information they receive.
To do so, we field a survey assessing policy knowledge regarding the Next Generation EU and conduct a survey experiment where we randomize the availability of "I Dont Know" options for all the policy knowledge-assessment questions, to evaluate the role of gender differences in confidence.
In a subsequent wave of the survey, we provide information treatments to see to what extent individuals learn about the policy and if there are differential effects depending on the framing of information they receive. Furthermore, thanks to geographic variation in the data, we investigate whether living in areas that are more vs. less intensively treated by the policy affect perceptions and attitudes and if the gender gradient in knowledge persists across areas. We also investigate whether the provided information affect trust and attitudes towards the EU, and whether women respond differently also along this margin.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Grembi, Veronica and SILVIA VANNUTELLI. 2023. "Knowledge about EU funds, trust and attitudes towards the EU." AEA RCT Registry. September 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11294-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2023-05-03
Intervention End Date
2023-05-19

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcome variables of the experiment are the knowledge of the policy (along various margins)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
trust in institutions and in science, attitudes towards the European Union and political representation, and their political preferences.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
In addition to the experimental variables, we are also interested in the heterogeneity of the background characteristics of respondents and will thus look at outcomes by sub-groups as defined by income, place of residence, age, gender, political affiliation, education level and field, main sources of news.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Randomization of I Don't know answer option
Randomization of information treatments
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
computer-based randomization
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
4,000
Sample size: planned number of observations
4,000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
2 treatment arms
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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