The Impact of Behaviorally Informed Mailers on Uptake of a Cover Crop Cost-share Program

Last registered on August 26, 2023

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

The Impact of Behaviorally Informed Mailers on Uptake of a Cover Crop Cost-share Program

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011778

Initial registration date

August 04, 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

August 10, 2023, 1:25 PM EDT

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

Last updated

August 26, 2023, 3:31 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Iowa

Primary Investigator

Name

Cecilia Shang

Affiliation

ideas42

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Jessica Li

PI Affiliation

Colleague

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2023-06-05

End date

2024-01-26

Keywords

Agriculture, Behavior, Environment & Energy

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

We plan to run three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to help increase enrollment in a cover crop cost share program for soybean and corn farmers in the Midwest. In the first two tests, we will distribute informative mailers to eligible farmers, which will be sent from a large agricultural cooperative, which is a familiar and trusted source of information for its member farmers. We will test the impact of a behaviorally-informed mailer (letter in one test, postcard in another) on enrollment in the cost-share program, and will also test whether offering a lottery incentive impacts enrollment timing. In the third test, we will investigate whether a farmer-to-farmer referral email campaign impacts enrollment in the cover crop cost-share program.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Li, Jessica and Cecilia Shang. 2023. "The Impact of Behaviorally Informed Mailers on Uptake of a Cover Crop Cost-share Program." AEA RCT Registry. August 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11778-2.0

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention 1: Timely mailers from a trusted messenger

We are testing the impact of behaviorally informed mailers on enrollment in a cover crop cost share program among members of a large agricultural cooperative. These member farmers make up a very small proportion of cost-share enrollees and we seek to leverage the familiarity and trust they have with their local Agricultural Cooperative to boost enrollment in the Practical Farmers of Iowa cover crop cost-share program.

Intervention 2: Farmer Network Referrals

The Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) has a large network of cover cropping farmers already engaged in their cover crop cost-share program. We designed a campaign to encourage farmers that enroll in the PFI cover crop cost-share program to refer their farmer neighbors and friends to the program. This intervention leverages existing farmer social networks and provides a friendly introduction to PFI’s programs from a trusted and relatable peer messenger.

Intervention Start Date

2023-06-05

Intervention End Date

2023-12-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Enrollment in PFI’s cover crop cost share program

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Application submission date
Number of Acres of fall cover crop intended to seed for 2023
# of Acres of fall cover crop seeded for 2023
Likelihood of making a referral for 2023

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We will be conducting three randomized controlled trials (RCTs):

RCT 1: Postcard experiment with two treatment arms and one control arm designed to evaluate the impact of postcards on enrollment in PFI's cover crop cost-share program.

RCT 2: Letter experiment with two treatment arms and one control arm designed to evaluate the impact of postcards on enrollment in PFI's cover crop cost-share program.

RCT 3: Referral program: Structured referral program with a treatment and a control arm designed to evaluate whether farmer-to-farmer referrals impact enrollment in PFI's cover crop cost-share program.

Experimental Design Details

We will be conducting three randomized controlled trials (RCTs):

RCT 1: Postcard experiment
Control: No mailer. The cooperative’s conservation agronomists will conduct business as usual, which includes offering all farmers that they work with the opportunity to enroll in the PFI cover crop cost share program as they do each year.
Treatment 1: Farmers in treatment group 1 will be sent a postcard and a follow up reminder email (if they have an email address on file).
Treatment 2: Farmers in treatment group 2 will be sent a postcard and a follow up reminder email (if they have an email address on file). This version of the postcard will include the offer of a $500 raffle entry incentive for all farmers that enroll before August 1, 2023.

RCT 2: Letter experiment
Control: No mailer. The cooperative’s conservation agronomists will conduct business as usual, which includes offering all farmers that they work with the opportunity to enroll in the PFI cover crop cost share program as they do each year.
Treatment 1: Treatment group 1 will be sent a letter and a follow up reminder email.
Treatment 2: Treatment group 2 will be sent a letter and a follow up reminder email. This version of the mailer will include the offer of a $500 raffle entry incentive for all farmers that enroll before August 1, 2023. This version of the letter mailer will also contain an additional informational flier on a specialty cover crop seeding method.

RCT 3: Referral program
Control: Control farmers will receive all the normal communications from PFI about the cost share program. They will be able to refer farmers to the program if they choose to do so.
Treatment: Farmers in the treatment group will receive two emails and one text reminder (if they indicated willingness to receive text messages) encouraging them to refer their friends to the program after they have successfully enrolled in the program.

Randomization Method

Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger): ideas42 will conduct the randomization of eligible cooperative members using Stata.

Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals): Farmers will be randomized into treatment or control through an automated AirTable randomization function.

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger): 5,599 people
Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals): approx. 1200 people

Sample size: planned number of observations

Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger): 5,599 people Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals): Final count will depend on the number of enrolled farmers

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger)

RCT 1
Control = 1089 people
T1 = 1089 people
T2: 1089 people

RCT 2
Control: 457
T1: 457
T2: 457

Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals)

RCT 3
Control: Approximately 600
Treatment: Approximately 600
Note: These counts are approximate and based on the 1,200 farmers that enrolled in 2022. (The total sample size will depend on the number of farmers who enroll in 2023)

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

Intervention 1 (Timely mailers from a trusted messenger): RCT1 MDE: Unit: Individual base rate = 5.4% variance = 0.051084 MDE = 2.7 pp change RCT2 MDE: Unit: Individual base rate = 5.4% variance = 0.051084 MDE = 4.2 pp change Intervention 2 (Farmer Network Referrals) MDE Unit: Individual Base rate = 32% variance = 0.2176 MDE = 7.5 pp change

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB