A psychological intervention and financial literacy. A lab experiment.

Last registered on June 23, 2023
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
A psychological intervention and financial literacy. A lab experiment.
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011574
Initial registration date
June 14, 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 23, 2023, 4:40 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Reka Zempleni
Affiliation
Stanford University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-06-14
End date
2024-05-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Finance & Microfinance, Firms & Productivity, Other
Additional Keywords
Mindset, Learning, Financial Literacy, Entrepreneurship
JEL code(s)
C91, C99, D14, D84, D91, G41, G53, I25, I29, O10, O16, O29, O39
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Entrepreneurs are important drivers of development. Nevertheless, existing entrepreneur training programs had small and heterogeneous impacts. This project explores whether a mostly psychological intervention can make early-stage entrepreneurs believe in their abilities to improve in any skill and be able to actually do so, thereby bridging the gap between the needs of developing country entrepreneurs and the often Silicon Valley-influenced expectations of accelerators. This project runs an online lab experiment with participants who have a connection to entrepreneurship recruited from Amazon MTurk's India-based workers and Prolific's USA-based workers. The study tests whether a mostly psychological intervention is a viable way to encourage participants to believe in their abilities to improve their financial literacy (or any other skill) and to lead to actual improvements.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Zempleni, Reka. 2023. "A psychological intervention and financial literacy. A lab experiment.." AEA RCT Registry. June 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11574-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
See under experimental design
Intervention Start Date
2023-06-14
Intervention End Date
2024-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Financial literacy game performance and effort; change in financial literacy and in beliefs about one's ability to improve at financial literacy and other skills
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Online survey with an RCT approach. (Details hidden)
Experimental Design Details
Participants answer basic demographic survey questions, questions about their mindset and about their financial literacy. Then, they play a financial literacy game. Then, they see either the control or the treatment information that have been designed based on an intervention with great results in the Psychology Literature, following the approach of:
Yeager, D. S., Romero, C., Paunesku, D., Hulleman, C. S., Schneider, B., Hinojosa, C., Lee, H. Y., O'Brien, J., Flint, K., Roberts, A., Trott, J., Greene, D., Walton, G. M., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school.Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), 374–391. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000098
Then they play the game again, after picking a difficulty level. This time, during the game they have the opportunity to keep trying again to improve their score. After playing the game for the second time they answer additional questions on their financial literacy and mindset.
Randomization Method
Qualtrics software
Randomization Unit
Individual participant
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Individual units are used, no clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
150-200 across the two sources
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1/2 treatment and 1/2 control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Administrative Panel on Human Subjects in Non-Medical Research of Stanford University
IRB Approval Date
2022-05-16
IRB Approval Number
64607
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

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