Impact of PES firm-targeted prospection and employment services

Last registered on June 23, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impact of PES firm-targeted prospection and employment services
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011579
Initial registration date
June 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
June 23, 2023, 4:51 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Harvard University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
CREST
PI Affiliation
J-PAL, Morocco Employment Lab
PI Affiliation
Harvard Kennedy School

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-01-01
End date
2024-11-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Over the past two decades, Morocco’s growth has been accompanied by low job creation, and labor market conditions remained characterized by persistent unemployment, low job quality, and exclusion of certain groups such as the youth and women. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these challenges. Given this context, it is critical to better understand how public employment services (PES) can help stimulate job creation, create longer-lasting job matches and increase access to job opportunities for all. In this study, we partner with the Moroccan Public Employment Agency – l'Agence Nationale de Promotion de l'Emploi et des Compétences, (Anapec) – to assess the impact of offering hiring support to firms on a number of relevant labor market indicators. In particular, we are evaluating an intervention that aims to alleviate some of the information frictions firms face in accessing PES services and to determine whether a higher take-up of three types of services – wage subsidy, training subsidy, and screening services – can boost labor demand. We plan to rely on administrative and survey data to measure whether the treatment helps stimulate labor demand and increase job creation. We also use this data to explore mechanisms through the types of PES services that are used and the quality of the newly created vacancies.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Crépon, Bruno et al. 2023. "Impact of PES firm-targeted prospection and employment services." AEA RCT Registry. June 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11579-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The primary experiment estimates the impact of having a PES caseworker (i) promote PES services to employers and (ii) assist them with all their follow-up needs. We will measure this impact on a range of indicators, including their willingness to engage with PES caseworkers, their demand for the proposed PES services, and their overall labor demand (number of new hires and their characteristics)

As part of our baseline, we also implemented a survey experiment. Prior to sending the online surveys to firms and doing follow-up calls to fill out the survey, the research team randomly assigned firms into four groups: three treatment groups that received additional information and details about one of the three main PES services (subsidized contracts program; subsidized training and screening services); a control group that only received the basic email and invitation to fill out the baseline survey.
Intervention (Hidden)
Following the baseline survey, we designed a randomized controlled trial in collaboration with the Moroccan PES. Our sample of interest includes all the employers that responded to our baseline survey, either by email or after our phone follow-up. The 8,000 employers in this target sample are then randomly divided into two groups:
1) Treatment group: These firms are placed first on the PES' contact lists and receive access to intensive prospection and follow-up assistance by caseworkers during the study period. Employers will be contacted by PES caseworkers according to a standardized outreach script corresponding to their initial needs and will be followed up with.
2) Control group: These firms are placed last on Anapec’s contact list and are ``sanctuarized'' for about 6 months before PES caseworkers can start to actively contact them. If employers in this group contact the PES on their own initiative, they will still have access to all the PES services.

As part of our baseline, we also implemented a survey experiment. Prior to sending the online surveys to firms and doing follow-up calls to fill out the survey, the research team randomly assigned firms into four groups:
* A control group: a group of firms that received the basic email and invitation to fill out the baseline survey.
* Three treatment groups: on top of the invitation to answer the survey, each group received additional information and details about one of the following PES services: subsidized contracts program; subsidized training program; or screening services. This information was repeated in the last module of our survey. It is thus read out loud by the surveyor when the survey is administered by phone.

After the information treatment, we asked firms if they would like to receive additional information about the services offered by Anapec.
Intervention Start Date
2023-02-01
Intervention End Date
2023-11-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Outcomes from PES Administrative Data :
*Type and intensity of contact with PES caseworkers
*Use of PES services: take-up of the main PES programs including subsidized training (FCE), wage subsidies (Idmaj & Tahfiz), and screening services.
*Number and type of job postings on the PES website.
*Number and characteristics of applicants for job descriptions posted by firms included in our sample. *
*Number and characteristics of hired workers for job descriptions posted by firms included in our sample.

Outcomes from Social Security Data (conditional on access) :
*Number of newly hired workers.
*Wages of newly hired workers.
*Characteristics of newly hired workers: age, gender, tenure in the formal sector.
*Share of newly hired workers that come from the PES pool (combining the two sources of data).

Endline Survey Outcomes (conditional on funding):
*Time spent and perceived challenges during the recruitment process.
*Subjective assessment of workers recruited via Anapec.
*Perception of the PES and its services.
*Knowledge about the PES services.
*Number and characteristics of hired workers (if administrative data is not made available)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our primary experiment estimates the impact of having a PES caseworker (i) promote PES services to employers and (ii) assist them with all their follow-up needs. We randomly assigned firms in our samples to one of these (same-size) two groups:
*Treatment group: firms are actively being prospected and assisted by a PES caseworker.
*Control group: PES caseworkers don’t actively contact them but, if employers in this group contact the PES on their own initiative, they will still have access to all the PES services.

We will measure the impact of this intervention on a range of indicators, including their willingness to engage with PES caseworkers, their demand for the proposed PES services, and their overall labor demand (number of new hires and their characteristics). These indicators will be measured both via an endline survey and administrative data.

As part of our baseline, we also implemented a secondary survey experiment. Prior to sending the online surveys to firms and doing follow-up calls to help them fill out the survey, the research team randomly assigned firms into four groups, three of them received additioanl information about a specific PES program (subsidized wages; subsidized training and screening services) and a control group only received the basic invitation to answer our survey.
Experimental Design Details
Baseline survey: We collected baseline surveys by phone and email for a sample of about 8,000 firms. Questions were primarily taken from previous PES annual surveys, with slight modifications to align with the research objectives. The survey had three primary goals:
1) To collect baseline characteristics and contact information for the firms that will take part in the primary evaluation
2) To test how advertising different PES services in the survey impacts response rates and interest in learning more about the agency
3) To generate a snapshot of the recruitment and training needs of PES clients

Demand elicitation: Prior to sending the online surveys to firms and doing follow-up calls to help them fill out the survey, the research team randomly assigned firms into four groups:
*A control group: a group of firms that received the basic email and invitation to fill out the baseline survey.
*Three treatment groups: on top of the invitation to answer the survey, each group received additional information and details about one of the following PES services: subsidized contracts program; subsidized training program; or screening services. This information was repeated in the last module of our survey. It is thus read out loud by the surveyor when the survey is administered by phone.
After sharing this information, we asked firms in all groups if they would like to receive additional information about the services offered by Anapec.

Main Intervention: Following the baseline survey, we designed a randomized controlled trial in collaboration with the Moroccan PES. Our sample of interest includes all the employers that responded to our baseline survey, either by email or after our phone follow-up. The 8,000 employers in this target sample are then randomly divided into two groups:
*Treatment group: These firms are placed first on Anapec’s contact lists and receive access to an intensive e-prospection and follow-up assistance by caseworkers during the study period. Employers will first be contacted by PES caseworkers according to a standardized script corresponding to their typology. Following their conversation with caseworkers, employers that wish to benefit from Anapec's services will be accompanied so that they can access all the required services in a timely manner.
*Control group: These firms are placed last on Anapec’s contact list and are “sanctuarized” for about 6 months before PES caseworkers can contact them. They therefore will not receive access to the e-prospection and follow-up assistance during the study period.If some employers still spontaneously request PES services, they will have access to them.

Importantly, for our design we stratified by (i) the Anapec local agencies that will conduct the prospection and follow-up PES; (ii) a dummy variable equals to 1 if a firm reported an hiring need at baseline; (iii) a categorical variable indicating whether the firm had contact with the Moroccan PES in the last two years; are at risk of being contacted after the start of the intervention because of PES administrative follow-ups; no recent contact and no risk of near future contact.

We implement the intervention by sharing lists of control and treatment firms with each local PES agency. We monitor the implementation with a mix of field visits and backchecks on administrative data.

1) Endline survey: Before the control group starts to be treated and conditional on funding, we will conduct an endline survey for all firms in the experiment. The first survey goal is to understand the number of workers hired by the firm, their characteristics (i.e. gender, age, skill level), as well as the objective characteristics and perceived quality of the newly hired workers. A second goal of the survey is to understand how firm recruitment and training processes work and potentially changed following the intervention, as well as their knowledge and satisfaction levels of Anapec e-prospection and PES services.

2) Administrative outcomes: In terms of administrative data that will allow us to track firms over time, conditional on approval, we hope to use:
PES Administrative Data: We will use our partner's internal administrative data to understand intermediate process outcomes: caseworkers' compliance to the protocol (i.e., whether treatment firms are provided with the prospection services), the types of PES services that firms take up, the number and types of job ads posted on the PES portal, the number and types of workers hired directly through the Moroccan PES.

3) Social Security Data: We plan to request data from the Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale (CNSS) for access to social security declarations for the 8,000 firms in the experiment. This will allow us to understand very basic characteristics of firm hiring during the course of the experiment: the total number of workers, their basic demographic characteristics, their type of contract, their wages, and the length of their job spell.
Randomization Method
Our randomization for the survey experiment was done in Stata using the administrative data from the Moroccan PES. Our randomization for the main experiment was done in Stata using the sample of firms that responded to our baseline survey. All codes will be made public at publications.
Randomization Unit
Our research protocol is based on two orthogonal randomizations at the firm level.
For the survey experiment, we randomize the information firms received about one of the PES services. For the main intervention, we randomize the follow-up calls with PES caseworkers at the firm level among the ones that responded to our baseline survey. We stratified by (i) the Anapec local agencies that will conduct the prospection and follow-up PES; (ii) a dummy variable equals to 1 if a firm reported an hiring need at baseline; (iii) a categorical variable indicating whether the firm had contact with the Moroccan PES in the last two years; are at risk of being contacted after the start of the intervention because of PES administrative follow-ups; no recent contact and no risk of near future contact.
For our secondary experiment, we also run the randomization on a computer. We randomized our secondary intervention at the firm level and stratified along the two following dimensions: (i) size of firms; (ii) sector of activity.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The design is not clustered.
Sample size: planned number of observations
8,000 firms
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
4,000 firms in the treatment group and 4,000 in the control group for the main experiment.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
For the following power calculations, we define the treatment as having a caseworker that actively follows up with the firm to propose the full suite of Anapec services and assist them with the requested services, and we report the minimum detectable effect (MDE). We do not assume outcomes are standardized, and our goal is to measure the average treatment effects of our interventions on these outcomes using our baseline survey as a reference. The MDEs are then reported in levels. Considering a significance level of α = 0.05 and a statistical power of 80%, we obtain an MDE of 0.0310 for the dummy of whether a firm reports a hiring need (equal to 6.2% of the outcome’s standard deviation) and MDE = 0.0306 for the dummy of whether they have a training need (= 6.2% of the outcome’ standard deviation). For reference, Crepon et al. (2022) studied a similar intervention in France and found an impact of 7.9% of standard deviations for their main outcome: the number of newly hired workers. Importantly, for our design we stratified by (i) the Anapec local agencies that will conduct the prospection and follow-up PES; (ii) a dummy variable equals to 1 if a firm reported an hiring need at baseline; (iii) a categorical variable indicating whether the firm had contact with the Moroccan PES in the last two years; are at risk of being contacted after the start of the intervention because of PES administrative follow-ups; no recent contact and no risk of near future contact. Outcomes: * Hiring need (0/1): MDE = 0.0310 (6.2% SD) * Training need (0/1): MDE = 0.0306 (6.2% SD) * Used PES as a recruitment channel in the past: 0.0278 (6.1% SD) * Number of PES services used in the past: 0.0387 (6.0% SD)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB from Harvard University (MA, USA) and from Paris School of Economics (Paris, France).
IRB Approval Date
2022-09-01
IRB Approval Number
IRB21-0219
Analysis Plan

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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