Understanding constraints on firms in providing safe workplace for women

Last registered on May 04, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Understanding constraints on firms in providing safe workplace for women
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011991
Initial registration date
August 29, 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, 6:45 AM EDT

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

Last updated
May 04, 2025, 3:49 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
karmini sharma
Affiliation
Imperial College London
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Anisha Sharma
PI Affiliation
Ashoka University
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PI Name
Lori Beaman
PI Affiliation
Northwestern University
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PI Name
Puneet Arora
PI Affiliation
Management Development Institute, Gurgaon
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2023-05-01
End date
2026-03-31
Keywords
Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Firms & Productivity, Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Female labor force participation in India is among the lowest in the world and has been falling over the past three decades. Safer workplaces may help encourage more women to apply for work (Jayachandran (2020)) especially in countries like India where female labor force participation is low and where stigma related to sexual harassment is high (Borker (2017), Sharma (2022)). Sexual harassment of Women at Workplace Act 2013 (SHWA) was implemented in India to promote the provision of safety amenities at work for women. The institutional mechanisms mandated by the law could improve the perceived and actual safety of working women and their consequent labor market outcomes. In this study, we aim to understand the challenges faced by Indian firms in creating a safe workplace for women. We first aim to study whether job seekers value anti-sexual harassment amenities at work, ii)whether firms' beliefs or expectations about job seekers' preferences are corrrect and iii) we randomly provide two information interventions to HR managers at corporate firms on i) legal compliance guidelines of SHWA 2013 and ii) job-seeker preferences on amenities at the workplace. We then aim to analyze changes in hiring managers' beliefs on job-seeker preferences, prevalence of sexual harassment and willingness to invest in workplace safety. One key outcome of the RCT will be firm's (represented by the hiring manager's) willingness to sign up and attend a workplace safety webinar organized by our partnering NGO.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Arora, Puneet et al. 2025. "Understanding constraints on firms in providing safe workplace for women ." AEA RCT Registry. May 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11991-3.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date
2023-07-01
Intervention End Date
2023-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Take-up of safety webinar, attitudes and beliefs of HR managers about job seekers' exposure to sexual harassment, awareness about sexual harassment, changes in beliefs about job seekers' preferences for safety amenities at work.
From the elicitation of firms' beliefs of job seekers preferences, we aim to compare the two to understand the mismatches.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We conduct surveys with HR managers of firms in India. There will be two information interventions. The first is information regarding their knowledge and awareness of SHWA 2013 compliance requirements through a quiz and discussion of the results with the managers. The second treatment is informing them of the (mis)match of their beliefs with actual preferences of female job seekers’ regarding workplace safety amenities. The information regarding job-seeker preferences is from a separate survey conducted with approximately 500 Indian jobseekers who are either enrolled in college or have completed college.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done automatically via survey software
Randomization Unit
Firms registered with our partner registrar of firms in India.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
400 firms, 1000 job seekers for eliciting preferences over workplace amenities
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
160 (control), 120 (treatment 1), 120 (treatment 2),
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
IRB Approval Date
2023-04-21
IRB Approval Number
N/A
IRB Name
Ashoka University
IRB Approval Date
2022-12-05
IRB Approval Number
22-E-10019-Sharma
IRB Name
Northwestern University
IRB Approval Date
2023-04-06
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan