Offering scholarships to adult skilled workers

Last registered on January 23, 2025
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Offering scholarships to adult skilled workers
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011476
Initial registration date
May 26, 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
June 06, 2023, 9:18 AM EDT

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

Last updated
January 23, 2025, 5:25 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Norway
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Karen Hauge
Affiliation
Frisch Centre
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-01-01
End date
2023-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
I22, I28, J24, C93
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Low-educated adults are underrepresented in adult education. At the same time, the current high-paced technological change shapes and stimulates demand for a labor force capable of constantly updating its skill set, which can result in a wedge between labor supply and demand if the supplied and demanded skill profiles grow apart. In a large-scale field experiment, we study if a financial incentive in the form of a scholarship increases enrollment in education among skilled adult workers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hauge, Karen. 2025. "Offering scholarships to adult skilled workers." AEA RCT Registry. January 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11476-2.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Offer a scholarship to adult skilled workers
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2022-02-01
Intervention End Date
2022-07-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Education enrollment
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We will construct the dummy variable Enrolled that measures enrollment in education. Specifically, we base this on the variable for ongoing education from Statistics Norway called “igang 2022”, which records if a person is registered in education in October of any given year, in our case, in October 2022 (2021 for the pilot sample).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Scholarship group: receives an offer of an educational scholarship if they enroll in education during the following study year (August-June) and information about what possibilities exist regarding further education.
Information group: receives the same information regarding educational opportunities and general funding possibilities without the specific scholarship offer.
Control group: not contacted.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by computer script.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clusters.
Sample size: planned number of observations
292 002 individuals in main experiment
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Scholarship group: 61 800 individuals
Information group: 169 950 individuals
Control group: 67 252 individuals
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
To test the hypothesis that a scholarship offer affects the proportion who enrolls in education, using a p-value of 0.05 and 80% power, we have a minimum detectable effect size (MDE) of 0.00027.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Data Protection Agency at the Frisch Centre
IRB Approval Date
2022-10-11
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-analysis plan may 26 2023

MD5: 621af98b236e26b7afb724c7442be200

SHA1: 393004f04a98d1a34a139401581345f303184d1b

Uploaded At: May 26, 2023

Pre-analysis plan version 2 January 23 2025

MD5:

SHA1:

Uploaded At: January 23, 2025

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
August 01, 2022, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
None
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Total: 303396
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Control: 68713 Scholarship group: 63265 Information group: 171 418
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials