The Role of Peers and Experience in Shaping the Demand for Cultural Leisure Activities.

2023-06-26

2024-07-26

There are four sets out outcomes we plan to analyze:
1. The take-up rate of treated members (visits at the Automobile Museum, MAUTO, where they can receive a gadget, and referrals of friends)
2. Museum visits of M and F, and M with F as well as visits with other peers (multiple visits to the same museum at the same time are a good proxy of joint visits).
3. Membership renewals of M and F (we are going to observe renewals of F only if we can extend the analysis beyond one year).
4. a) Self-reported visitor’s sentiment about museums (R. scale)
b) Self-reported visitor’s addiction to museums (R. scale)
c) Self-reported visitor’s WTP for museums membership (R. scale)
and compare their answers with the ex-ante survey (the ex-ante full survey is attached to this pre-registration.

The Museums Membership Association (Associazione Abbonamento Musei) is going to email four randomly assigned messages. Each group will represent 25 percent of the pool of card members. The first group is going to receive a neutral message and acts as a control group. The first treated group is going to receive a similar message with, in addition, a voucher for the discounted purchase of a new membership. The voucher expires within a month and can be used at the Automobile Museum of Turin, Italy (MAUTO). The second treatment group is going to be incentivized to visit a museum. He/she receives a similar message to the control group and in addition a message that informs him/her that he/she can pick up a little gadget at the MAUTO after a visit. The third treatment group receives both the possibility to pick up a gadget and the voucher for a discount on a new membership.

Dear member,
(To control and treatment groups:) We wanted to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support and membership in AMMP. In addition, we would like to thank you for filling out our July survey.
(In addition, to Treatment group 1 and 3:)
Over the next 4 weeks, a friend of yours can use the voucher below to purchase an AMMP annual subscription at a discounted price by presenting this email at the Turin Automobile Museum (MAUTO) ticket office.
CodeVoucher XXX393
(In addition to the treatment groups 2 and 3:) To further thank you, we would like to present you with a nice gadget that you can request at the MAUTO bookshop. You will be able to request the gift at the end of your visit to the museum by presenting this e-mail along with your admission ticket. The ticket will be issued at the ticket office once the subscription is presented.
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Not available

The target population for the experiment are 5083 survey respondents with an active membership in June 2023. The survey has been sent in July 2022 to all people who purchased an “Abbonamento Musei” membership. We randomize the visitors' assignment to the different arms of the experiment using a completely randomized experimental approach.

An individual is assigned either to a control (only an informational email) or to a treatment group. There are three possible treatments:
1) treatment 1 (voucher for F)
2) treatment 2 (gift for M);
3) treatment 3 (voucher for F + gift for M);

The randomization unit is the visitor.

No

Potentially we have 5083 units

The planned number of observations is 5083.

If C denotes the control, T, T', and T'' are the treatments, the planned sample size is Num(.) to be Num(C) = Num(T) = Num(T') = Num(T'') =1270 of either control or treated M.