Hiring Effective Health Promoters

We seek to shed light on the gains to employers from different approaches to screening job applicants. We implement a randomized controlled trial in the context of hiring "health promoters" (HPs) to achieve public health goals related to HIV/AIDS in Mozambique.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Allen IV, James et al. 2023. "Hiring Effective Health Promoters." AEA RCT Registry. July 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11630-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We study the impact of different approaches to hiring health promoters (HPs) in Mozambican neighborhoods. Neighborhoods are randomly assigned to different treatments (hiring approaches), and then health promoters are hired using the randomly-assigned hiring approach. Some neighborhoods are randomly assigned to be control areas, and serve as counterfactuals.

Intervention Start Date

2023-07-10

Intervention End Date

2025-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The sum of the following:
- Number of HIV tests carried out on residents of a neighborhood.
- Number of ART prescription refills collected by residents of a neighborhood.

Outcomes are calculated from administrative data provided by the local public health clinic where HIV tests and ART refills are carried out.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Taking the sum of HIV tests and ART refills maps precisely to the HP compensation formula. HPs receive piece-rate compensation for each HIV test and ART prescription refill by residents of the neighborhood in which they work. The rate of piece-rate compensation is the same for an HIV test and for an ART refill.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

1. Treatment 1 (T1): First hiring approach. A health promoter hired using the first hiring approach works in this neighborhood alone for two months. Minimal qualifications are based on education level, knowledge of local language, and knowledge about HIV.

2. Treatment 2 (T2): Second hiring approach. A health promoter hired using the second hiring approach works in this neighborhood alone for two months. The hiring panel also has access to data used to determine minimal qualifications.

3. Treatment 3 (T3): Third hiring approach. A health promoter hired using the third hiring approach works in this neighborhood alone for two months.

4. Control neighborhood. No health promoter works in this neighborhood. (Depending on the spatial structure of neighborhoods, in some strata there may be more than one control neighborhood.)

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by computer

Randomization Unit

Neighborhood

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

At least 64 strata (groups of neighborhoods)

Sample size: planned number of observations

At least 256 neighborhoods

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Assuming 64 strata and four (4) study neighborhoods in each, the neighborhood sample size in each treatment arm will be:
64 neighborhoods T3.
64 neighborhoods T2.
64 neighborhoods T1.
64 neighborhoods control. (As the study progresses, we may define more than one control neighborhood in some areas. The total number of control neighborhoods may therefore be above this number.)

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB