Empowering Futures: Irrational Expectations, Excessive Pressure and Job market failure

Last registered on October 18, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowering Futures: Irrational Expectations, Excessive Pressure and Job market failure
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013326
Initial registration date
October 08, 2024

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 18, 2024, 4:41 PM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Debayan Pakrashi
Affiliation
Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2024-08-01
End date
2027-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Labor, Other, Welfare
Additional Keywords
expectations, job search, career development, mental health, wellbeing, society
JEL code(s)
J22, J24, J64, I24, I25
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
There exists a bias towards government jobs both from within families as well as from the society, which often pushes Indian youths towards excessively high aspirations, irrational expectations about the job market and longer spells of unemployment. This strong desire and bias towards government jobs, unrealistic family expectations, and societal pressure can have serious consequences on the well-being of the young adults, those around them (family members) and the society in general. This study will first attempt to understand the complex factors contributing to the problem. In addition, to combat these challenges, the current project outlines a comprehensive approach involving mental health counselling, information dissemination with focus on expectations correction, effective learning and finally parental counselling. The proposal envisions working with about 2,300 youths (both male and female) in the 20-29 age group from 150 different regions (urban as well as rural) in the district of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. The experimental design will include three treatment groups receiving varying levels of intervention and a control group.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Pakrashi, Debayan. 2024. "Empowering Futures: Irrational Expectations, Excessive Pressure and Job market failure." AEA RCT Registry. October 18. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13326-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We aim to support the advancement of the literature in a relatively new research area by focusing on three interrelated activities: 

1. Collect information on practices and norms and understand an understudied, yet extremely relevant context: bias towards government jobs in India.
2. Understand whether this bias can be addressed via information dissemination aimed at expectation correction and guidance and mentoring.
3. Understand how to reduce (via counselling) the adverse effects (on mental health and wellbeing) on those both directly facing the pressure i.e., these youth themselves as well as their families and those affected via spillover effects (the society).

Intervention Start Date
2024-10-10
Intervention End Date
2025-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcomes that will be collected at endline and will be our key outcome variables are as follows:

-knowledge and awareness about the current job market scenario, and available opportunities, etc.
-time-use (effort, preparation, leisure, socializing, etc) and level of preparation
-expectations about the job market for both parents and youths
-pressure from family about job preference
-occupational choice/preferences for both youths and parents (self-employment, private or public sector: type and level)
-mental health and wellbeing (stress, depression, anxiety, happiness, life satisfaction)
-attitude towards government job and other job opportunities
-intention to register for (future) job registration in job camps and other specific training sessions (revealed preference to capture change in attitude) organized by the research team.
-job stereotypes.
-income, and economic activities
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
The secondary outcomes that we will focus in this study will be as follows:

-attitude towards marriage and family life captured via expected age at marriage and when they expect to start family
-empowerment and autonomy related indicators
-mobility and decision-making within the household
-satisfaction with job preparation and different aspects of life
-economic and social support from family (duration and quality of relationship)
-lab-in-the field games to capture risk and time preference
-other survey based preference indicators such as trust, reciprocity, altruistic behaviour, etc.
-marriage market expectations

We will also attempt to understand spillover effects (if any) on other family members and society in general.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In the current project, we will focus on about 2,300 youths (both male and female) in the 20-29 age group (one from each household) from 150 different regions (urban as well as rural) in Kanpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh. While 90 regions will be randomly assigned to the treatment groups (30 regions in each of the three treatments), 60 regions will be assigned to the control group. Randomization will be done at the region-level.

The interventions will be a combination of information dissemination as well as social and mental health counselling to provide overall guidance and support to the youths.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done on an office computer using the STATA software.
Randomization Unit
Region level.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
150 different regions/clusters (urban as well as rural).
Sample size: planned number of observations
About 2,300 youths (both male and female) from 150 clusters; 15 on average from each cluster.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
90 regions will be randomly assigned to the treatment groups (30 regions in each of the three treatments), and 60 regions will be assigned to the control group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IIT Kanpur IEC
IRB Approval Date
2023-06-16
IRB Approval Number
IITK/IEC/2023-24/I/39
Analysis Plan