Mediator Value Added and the Matching of Mediators to Court Cases

Last registered on October 17, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Mediator Value Added and the Matching of Mediators to Court Cases
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012237
Initial registration date
October 12, 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
October 17, 2023, 1:37 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Kenya
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Anja Sautmann
Affiliation
World Bank
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Antoine Deeb
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Wei Lu
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Dídac Martí Pinto
PI Affiliation
University College London
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PI Name
Manuel Ramos-Maqueda
PI Affiliation
World Bank and University of Oxford
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-06-15
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Governance
Additional Keywords
mediation and arbitration, mediator value-added, centralized assignment, Kenya
JEL code(s)
O2, D04, D73, J52, K36
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In Kenya, many court cases concerning land, inheritance, custody, and family matters are referred to the newly introduced court-annexed mediation (CAM) system. However, 58% of mediation cases are not successfully resolved and returned to the court, and agreement rates vary greatly by mediator. We use historical data on mediation case outcomes to estimate the mediator "value added" for the probability of a mediation case reaching an agreement. We then randomly assign incoming cases to mediators with an estimated value added above vs. below the median to test whether value added is a robust predictor of future performance and to estimate the individual-specific contributions of mediators to mediation success.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Deeb, Antoine et al. 2023. "Mediator Value Added and the Matching of Mediators to Court Cases." AEA RCT Registry. October 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12237-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Mediation cases are randomly assigned to mediators with positive vs. negative estimated value added (i.e. adjusted average case success rates). See pre-analysis plan for details.
Intervention Start Date
2023-10-13
Intervention End Date
2024-02-13

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Dummy for whether a mediation case ends in agreement
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The experiment forms groups of mediators with estimated value added smaller or greater than 0 and assigns incoming cases randomly to these two groups. Within groups, mediators are proposed according to randomly generated "priority lists". In expectation, 50% of cases are assigned to each group and each mediator within the group has an equal probability of being proposed for assignment to the case. See pre-analysis plan for details.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization engine built into the platform hosting the mediation management system.
Randomization Unit
Mediation case
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
At least 300 cases.
Sample size: planned number of observations
At least 300 cases.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
50% of the sample assigned to each treatment arm.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See pre-analysis plan.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Kenyatta University Centre for Research Ethics and Safety
IRB Approval Date
2023-06-16
IRB Approval Number
PKU/2722/E1846
Analysis Plan

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