The impact of a “progress with your goals” curriculum and its cultural framing among female microfinance clients in Vietnam

Last registered on July 23, 2024

Pre-Trial

General Information

Title

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011848

Initial registration date

September 08, 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

September 15, 2023, 8:51 AM EDT

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

Last updated

July 23, 2024, 7:54 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name

Robert Lensink

Affiliation

University of Groningen

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Nina Hansen

PI Affiliation

University of Groningen

PI Name

Travis Lybbert

PI Affiliation

University of California, Davis

PI Name

Claire Stein

PI Affiliation

University of Groningen

PI Name

Mark Treurniet

PI Affiliation

University of Groningen

PI Name

Nhung Vu

PI Affiliation

RMIT Vietnam

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2023-06-13

End date

2026-10-31

Keywords

Behavior, Finance & Microfinance, Gender

Additional Keywords

training, culture, framing, savings, competition

JEL code(s)

D91, O16

Secondary IDs

406.20.EB.007

Prior work

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

Abstract

Development interventions are often designed from independent perspectives that prioritize individualism, personal achievement and self-reliance, while individuals in non-Western countries are more likely to relate to interdependent values such as collective well-being, collaboration and traditions. Inspired by previous research, we have developed a “progress with your goals” curriculum that aims to help women to save. We created two versions, one incorporates an independent framing and the other incorporates an interdependent framing. Together with Tinh Thuong Microfinance Organization (TYM), a Vietnamese microfinance institution, we organize a field experiment to study the effect of the training and its different framings on women’s savings and preferences for competition.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Hansen, Nina et al. 2024. "The impact of a “progress with your goals” curriculum and its cultural framing among female microfinance clients in Vietnam." AEA RCT Registry. July 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11848-3.1

Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name

Tinh Thuong Microfinance Institution

Type

government

URL

http://tymfund.org.vn/en/

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The "progress with your goals" curriculum consists of four session. In session 1, participants reflect on their life goals and formulate smaller savings goals. Session 2 focuses on self-efficacy and session 3 deals with communication strategies. Session 4 is a recap session, in which participants reflect on the progress they made in each session topic and on challenges they experienced.
From the second session onwards, one version of the curriculum incorporates interdependent framing and another version incorporates independent framing. The framing is introduced in a video that features a women who is working towards her life goal, either in an independent or an interdependent way. Further, we provide lists of independent and interdependent strengths that women can use in their reflection exercises.
For further details, we refer to our Pre Analysis Plan.

Intervention Start Date

2023-08-05

Intervention End Date

2023-11-26

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Savings at our partner microfinance institution.

Preferences for competition.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

See our Pre-Analysis Plan for definitions.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

* Secondary outcomes: Other savings balances, loan balances, household income, personal income and freely available budget may reveal additional impact of the intervention or explain where any effect on savings at our partner microfinance organization comes from.
* Intermediate outcomes: Savings goals and indices for self-efficacy and communication may be affected by the training in general. In contrast, indices for partner, family and community connectedness may be affected specifically by the interdependent framing.
* Uptake: Participation in and satisfaction with training sessions and post-session short measures of self-efficacy, communication and homework completion may differ across the framings.

Risk preferences.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

See our Pre-Analysis Plan for definitions.

Experimental Design

All members of our partner microfinance institution in the selected region could register. Per member group, up to 9 eligible members were included in the sample. We subsequently created equally-sized strata based on the number of eligible members per group. Within these strata, we randomly assigned member groups to our two treatment arms and a control arm.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer.

Randomization Unit

Member groups.

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

163 member groups.

Sample size: planned number of observations

1,140 members.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

53 member groups control, 55 member groups independent training and 55 member groups interdependent training.

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

The Minimum Detectable Effect Size varies between 0.153 and 0.237 standard deviations, depending on the comparison and assumptions. See our Pre-Analysis Plan for details and for standard deviations of main outcomes at baseline.

Supporting Documents and Materials