Age at Marriage, Women's Human Capital, and Maternal & Child Health in Bangladesh

Last registered on February 07, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Age at Marriage, Women's Human Capital, and Maternal & Child Health in Bangladesh
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012455
Initial registration date
November 09, 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
November 17, 2023, 11:20 AM EST

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

Last updated
February 07, 2025, 4:10 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Bangladesh
Region
Barisal Division

Primary Investigator

Name
Erica Field
Affiliation
Duke University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Sakib Mahmood
PI Affiliation
BRAC Institute of Governance and Development
PI Name
Nina Buchmann
PI Affiliation
Yale University
PI Name
Rachel Glennerster
PI Affiliation
Center for Global Development

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2007-01-01
End date
2025-12-31
Keywords
Education, Gender, Health, Labor
Additional Keywords
Empowerment, Child Marriage, Conditional Incentives
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study is a long-term follow-up (15 years after program start, when program participants will be aged 30-32) of a large-scale clustered RCT that tested three strategies to reduce child marriage and increase girls' human capital in rural Bangladesh: (i) a six-month adolescent empowerment program (Kishoree Kontha), (ii) a conditional in-kind incentive to delay marriage, or (iii) empowerment + conditional incentive. The aim of this follow-up is to estimate program impacts on program participants and intergenerational impacts on their children.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Buchmann, Nina et al. 2025. "Age at Marriage, Women's Human Capital, and Maternal & Child Health in Bangladesh." AEA RCT Registry. February 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12455-2.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2023-12-01
Intervention End Date
2025-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Primary outcomes for program participants (women) include outcomes related to education, learning, marriage, childbearing, physical health, mental health, labor market, IPV & bargaining power. Primary outcomes for children include outcomes related to education, health, and childhood development.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Save the Children USA in Bangladesh implemented a broad range of interventions aimed at empowering adolescent girls. The program, Kishoree Kontha (Bangla for “adolescent girls’ voices”), was carried out in five sub-districts in the south central region of Bangladesh over 2 years and concluded in August 2010. A conditional noncash transfer was added to the Save the Children program. The interventions, at the village level, included the random assignment of the following packages:
a. Basic Package: community mobilization, social competency, self-help study support for in-school girls and literacy sessions for illiterate girls.
b. Livelihoods Package: Basic package plus financial competency training.
c. Conditional Stipend/Oil Incentive Package: non-cash incentive in the form of cooking oil conditional on the girl being unmarried. The value of the transfer was designed to offset the financial cost to families in increased dowry from delaying their daughter's marriage.
d. Full Package: Livelihoods Package plus Conditional Stipend.
e. Savings Cross-Cut: villages were randomly chosen from the Livelihoods and Full packages to receive support in establishing girls’ savings clubs.
f. Control Group: 153 villages in total were assigned as comparison.
The packages are structured to reflect different approaches to adolescent girl empowerment in order to separate out the role of different constraints on economic empowerment of women.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was done at the natural village level. Out of a sample of 460 target villages, 307 villages have been randomly selected to receive one of intervention packages above. The remaining villages serve as the comparison group.
Randomization Unit
Village-level, stratified by union (a geographical group of villages) and size of village.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
440
Sample size: planned number of observations
~15,000 women.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
76-77 villages in each treatment arm, 153 villages in control.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Duke Campus IRB
IRB Approval Date
2023-11-14
IRB Approval Number
2020-0353
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Analysis Plan

MD5: 8c36b3a72be646a7d38d5b1b133a3762

SHA1: 60075f5d4318ded0db09646fce93e5813b3b45f3

Uploaded At: February 07, 2025

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials