When job offers out-pace the marriage market: labour supply of college educated women in Pakistan

Last registered on May 19, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
When job offers out-pace the marriage market: labour supply of college educated women in Pakistan
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011298
Initial registration date
May 16, 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 19, 2023, 10:45 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Amen Jalal
Affiliation
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Nina Roussille
PI Affiliation
MIT
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PI Name
Oriana Bandiera
PI Affiliation
LSE
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-05-17
End date
2024-09-30
Keywords
Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In the past 25 years, female labor force participation (FLFP) of college-educated women in Pakistan has remained stagnant at 33% even though gender gaps in college-education are narrowing. In this project, we measure and track over time the beliefs and realized labor market decisions of thousands of students graduating from Pakistan’s largest (public) university. In addition, we provide a random subset of male and female students a range of monetary incentives to encourage them to apply to jobs within 1 month of graduation. We then track students’ labor market outcomes post-intervention to test whether early job applications increase the LFP of treated female students relative to control female students, as well as treated and control male students. This is motivated by a series of focus groups and baseline surveys with college students that we conducted, which revealed that most students in our context do not start applying to jobs until a few months after graduation, and typically underestimate how long it will take them to find a job. However, women start receiving marriage offers shortly after graduating. When marriage offers outpace the arrival of job offers, women’s likelihood of participating in the labor force may decline. Therefore, the goal of this study is to understand whether encouraging female students to apply to jobs right after graduation increases their likelihood of LFP.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bandiera, Oriana , Amen Jalal and Nina Roussille. 2023. "When job offers out-pace the marriage market: labour supply of college educated women in Pakistan ." AEA RCT Registry. May 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11298-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Embedded in a survey that we are launching at the university campus is the following prompt that will be shown to a randomly selected subset of male and female students :

[ TREATMENT ] : Our research team is committed to supporting your job search.

For that purpose, we would like to encourage you to apply to jobs as soon as possible. You have been randomly selected into a study that will give you {5000,20000} rupees if you apply to at least four jobs relevant to your preferred title ([job title]) and/or your field ([major]) and/or skill-set before August 15th.

The process is simple: we will give you a link to a google form. On this form, you will be able to upload a proof of your four applications (e.g., screenshot of "application submitted" page). Only applications to jobs relevant to your preferred title ([job title]) and/or your field ([major]) and/or skill-set will be considered valid applications.

A member of our team may get in touch with you to verify the details of your application and to confirm that you have sent authentic and relevant applications. Only applicants for whom all applications are authentic and relevant will get the {5000,20000} rupees rewards via mobile money transfer.

Would you like to participate in this study?

**

40% of the study sample will be randomly offered PKR 5,000 while 10% will be offered PKR 20,000. 50% of the sample is control - they will not be shown this treatment prompt.
Intervention Start Date
2023-05-17
Intervention End Date
2023-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
number of job applications, number of interviews, dummy=1 if gets a job offer, LFP, employment
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
offered salary, accepted salary, number of marriage offers, characteristics of potential future groom (eg education, wage).
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment will be conducted on a subsample of 2,500 students that are due to graduate over the summer of 2023 from Pakistan's largest public university. We provide a random subset of male and female students a range of monetary incentives to encourage them to apply to jobs within 1 month of graduation. We then track students’ labor market outcomes post-intervention to test whether early job applications increase the LFP of treated female students relative to control female students, as well as treated and control male students.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done by a survey software during the survey.
Randomization Unit
Individual.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
2,500 individuals.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
40% of the study sample will be offered PKR 5,000 while 10% will be offered PKR 20,000. 50% of the sample is control.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See supporting document with power calculations for primary outcomes.
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
MIT
IRB Approval Date
2023-05-08
IRB Approval Number
2304000976
Analysis Plan