Washing Machines, Gender Roles and Female Empowerment in Colombia

Last registered on May 29, 2016

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Washing Machines, Gender Roles and Female Empowerment in Colombia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001310
Initial registration date
May 29, 2016

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
May 29, 2016, 6:46 PM EDT

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2015-02-28
End date
2017-07-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Despite the recent rapid growth in female labor market participation, poor households in developing countries exhibit a highly asymmetric distribution of household production efforts across genders. Moreover, the poorest of these households cannot afford purchasing labor-saving technologies such as laundry machines. As a result, females have substituted away from leisure, to accomodate their increased labor supply and limited reduction in household labor. We explore whether the limited extent of redistribution of home production efforts between men and women in these households is related to strongly held gender norms regarding home work, and the extent to which these shared beliefs can respond to the availability and experience with labor-saving home production technologies. With this purpose we undertake a pilot intervention where we randomly assign subsidized laundry machines to households in six very poor neighborhoods in Bogota, Colombia, and track changes in gender role perceptions, labor market outcomes, time allocation outcomes, child development and health outcomes, and women's health outcomes for these households and a set of neighboring control households. To account for the potential interferences across treated and control households within these neighborhoods we also randomize the intensity of treatment offer across neighborhoods.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Garcia-Jimeno, Camilo and Ximena Pena. 2016. "Washing Machines, Gender Roles and Female Empowerment in Colombia." AEA RCT Registry. May 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1310-1.0
Former Citation
Garcia-Jimeno, Camilo and Ximena Pena. 2016. "Washing Machines, Gender Roles and Female Empowerment in Colombia." AEA RCT Registry. May 29. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1310/history/8490
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Random assignment of treatment offer intensities across six separate neighborhoods (intensity is defined as the number of treatment offers per neighborhood block, and ranges from 1/10 to 6/5).
Subsequent random assignment of laundry machine offers to households in each neighborhood according to its assigned treatment intensity.
Total number of treatment households: 97
Total number of control households: 97
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2015-09-20
Intervention End Date
2017-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Female empowerment perceptions.
2. Gender role perceptions.
3. Household time use across genders.
4. Children (less than 5) nutrition and health.
5. Women's health.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Female empowerment and gender role perceptions measures will be computed based on the answers to survey questions eliciting female decision-making and gender role-related views of household members.
Time use outcomes will be constructed based on a time-use questionnaire.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Random assignment of treatment offer intensities across six separate neighborhoods (intensity is defined as the number of treatment offers per neighborhood block, and ranges from 1/10 to 6/5).
Subsequent random assignment of laundry machine offers to households in each neighborhood according to its assigned treatment intensity.
Total number of treatment households: 97
Total number of control households: 97
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization of treatment intensities across neighborhoods done in office by computer.
Randomization of treatment offer within each neighborhood done through a public lottery.
Randomization Unit
2 levels of randomization:
1. Randomization of treatment intensity across neighborhoods.
2. Randomization of treatment offer within each neighborhood.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
6 neighborhoods
Sample size: planned number of observations
200 households
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
97 treatment households, 97 control households
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
0.42 of a standard deviation of home work hours. 0.17 of a standard deviation of laundry washing hours.
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Comite de Etica de la Universidad de los Andes
IRB Approval Date
2015-01-22
IRB Approval Number
No. 415 of 2015
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