The impact of information and role models on garment workers in Vietnam: Evidence from a field experiment

Last registered on December 13, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The impact of information and role models on garment workers in Vietnam: Evidence from a field experiment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012457
Initial registration date
November 15, 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 29, 2023, 9:58 AM EST

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

Last updated
December 13, 2023, 9:31 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Viet Nam
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Xinjue Yao
Affiliation
Peking University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Lukas Hensel
PI Affiliation
Peking University
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PI Name
Yuyu Chen
PI Affiliation
Peking University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-11-21
End date
2024-04-10
Keywords
Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
Information, role model, skill investment, social media
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Managers at a garment factory in Vietnam complain about low rates of productivity and high rates of turnover among their workers. Based on qualitative research, we found that workers invest little in acquiring new skills despite there being clear monetary payoffs. We hypothesize that this has two reasons: First, workers are not aware about the returns to investing in new skills. Second, they see existing skilled and productive workers as being very different from themselves and don’t perceive high skills to be possible and desirable for them. We plan to experimentally test whether relaxing either constraint separately or relaxing them jointly affects workers’ investment in their skills, their effort, their productivity, as well as their retention and absenteeism rates.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chen, Yuyu, Lukas Hensel and Xinjue Yao. 2023. "The impact of information and role models on garment workers in Vietnam: Evidence from a field experiment." AEA RCT Registry. December 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12457-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention is designed to mimic the typical social media content that workers consume in their spare time. Each intervention consists of eight short videos that will be delivered electronically in the Facebook groups set up at the beginning of the study. Workers will be allocated to one of four groups: information intervention, role model intervention, combined intervention and placebo group.
Intervention Start Date
2023-12-01
Intervention End Date
2023-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Investment and usage of skills, effort measures, productivity
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
See attached file.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
See attached file.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
See attached file.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will test two interventions aimed at increasing workers’ skill acquisition, increasing their effort, and, ultimately, their productivity. The intervention is designed to mimic the typical social media content that workers consume in their spare time. Each intervention consists of eight short videos that will be delivered electronically in the Facebook groups set up at the beginning of the study. We will incentivize workers to watch the videos by sending out weekly follow-up surveys with prizes for respondents who answer questions about the content of the videos correctly.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization happens in two stages. First, we randomize 59 production lines into high- and low-intensity lines. 2/3 of the production lines will be high intensity lines while 1/3 will be low-intensity lines. On high-intensity lines 90% of workers receive any of the three treatments. On low-intensity lines only 50% of workers receive any of the three treatments. This is calibrated to allocate 25% of workers to the placebo group overall.

Second, within each line we randomize which workers are in which group. All three treatment groups will have the same size on each treatment line. This ensures that each treatment group will contain 25% of sampled workers.

Randomization will be implemented using rerandomization until balance on baseline primary outcomes and demographic characteristics is achieved.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
The treatment is not clustered.
Sample size: planned number of observations
2200 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
550 workers control, 550 workers information intervention, 550 workers role model intervention and 550 workers combined intervention.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
PKU GSM-IRB (Institutional Review Board, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University)
IRB Approval Date
2023-11-12
IRB Approval Number
#2023-31
Analysis Plan

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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