Durability, Information and Price Decisions by Middlemen in a Circular Economy

Last registered on May 10, 2024
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Durability, Information and Price Decisions by Middlemen in a Circular Economy
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011966
Initial registration date
September 01, 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 04, 2023, 6:56 AM EDT

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

Last updated
May 10, 2024, 5:49 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Bangladesh
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Amrita Kundu
Affiliation
Georgetown University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Erica Plambeck
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Qiong Wang
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-08-28
End date
2027-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Environment & Energy, Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
durability, dealers, circular economy, moral hazard, audit study
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In developing countries, where product labels and standards are particularly weak, dealers play an important role in informing customers about expected performance of durable goods and influence their purchasing decisions. Dealers can choose to promote high performing products to create more value for the customer and increase their repeat purchase probability, but can also choose to increase short term gains by spreading misinformation and promoting products with sub-optimal performance. We study the decision making of dealers through an audit study in the electric three wheeler lead acid battery market in Bangladesh. In a circular economy, as with lead acid batteries, the sale of used batteries by customers at volatile lead market dependent salvage value introduces new trade-offs between durability, information and
price decisions for the dealers that we also study.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Kundu, Amrita, Erica Plambeck and Qiong Wang. 2024. "Durability, Information and Price Decisions by Middlemen in a Circular Economy." AEA RCT Registry. May 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11966-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2023-09-04
Intervention End Date
2023-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Battery quality, price, salvage value, warranty and product-related information shared by dealers.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is designed as an audit study. Enumerators and actors (hereby referred to as mystery shoppers) will be recruited to act as electric three wheeler battery customers of five different types and they will visit upto 250 battery shops in and around Dhaka city. In each shopping interaction, the enumerator will enact one of five characters and ask the retailer to provide him with a set of long lasting lead acid batteries for an electric three wheeler (locally called EZ Bike) they own. The enumerator will ask a few follow up questions and record the information shared by the dealer.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is done by office computer.
Randomization Unit
Each shop is visited by all five shopper types, but the sequence of the visits are randomly allocated and the enumerators are randomly allocated to play a shopper type on a particular day.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
250 dealer shops
Sample size: planned number of observations
1250 shopping interactions
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
250 dealer shops visited by each of the 5 shopper types
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Institute of Health Economics, University of Dhaka
IRB Approval Date
2023-08-17
IRB Approval Number
IHE/IRB/DU/44/2023
IRB Name
Georgetown University
IRB Approval Date
2023-09-01
IRB Approval Number
STUDY00006803
Analysis Plan

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