AEA RCT Registry

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Personal Bankruptcy Information Provision Experiment

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0013343

Initial registration date

April 11, 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

April 16, 2024, 2:47 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

Samuel Antill

Affiliation

Harvard Business School

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Raymond Kluender

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2024-04-29

End date

2024-07-31

Keywords

Finance & Microfinance

Additional Keywords

personal bankruptcy, information provision

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The consumer bankruptcy system provides significant benefits to high-debt individuals, yet fewer than 1% of US adults file each year. We use a randomized experiment to identify which factors are important deterrents to obtaining debt relief through bankruptcy. We will survey high-debt individuals. We will elicit perceptions of facts about bankruptcy and provide randomized information about bankruptcy to correct misperceptions. By exogenously shifting beliefs about bankruptcy, we will estimate the effect of the information provided on participants’: (i) willingness to consider bankruptcy and (ii) willingness to pay for bankruptcy information.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Antill, Samuel and Raymond Kluender. 2024. "Personal Bankruptcy Information Provision Experiment." AEA RCT Registry. April 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13343-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We will randomly sort participants into groups. Each group will receive one to three facts about bankruptcy. A control group receives one fact unrelated to bankruptcy. We measure how each fact changes willingness to consider bankruptcy or pay for bankruptcy information.

Intervention Start Date

2024-04-29

Intervention End Date

2024-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Our primary outcomes are willingness to consider bankruptcy and willingness to pay for bankruptcy information.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

We ask participants to say how likely they are to consider bankruptcy using a Likaert scale (e.g. no chance, unlikely, etc). We code this into a numeric variable. We then ask them to choose between $30 and a link providing bankruptcy information and assistance with filing. Our second variable is an indicator for choosing the bankruptcy information over $30. We run a lottery to incentivize this choice.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We randomly allocate participants into four groups. Our control group learns a fact unrelated to bankruptcy. Our net worth treatment group learns two facts about how bankruptcy increases their net worth. Our credit access group learns about research on how credit scores improve after bankruptcy. Our "Both" treatment group learns the net worth facts and the credit score fact.

Experimental Design Details

Not available

Randomization Method

Our randomization is done by Qualtrics.

Randomization Unit

The unit of randomization is an individual participant.

Was the treatment clustered?

No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

We plan to obtain 10,000 responses from individuals after dropping individuals that fail our two initial attention checks. In our main analysis, we will limit our sample to individuals with a high amount of dischargeable debt.

Sample size: planned number of observations

We plan to obtain 10,000 responses from individuals after dropping individuals that fail our two initial attention checks. In our main analysis, we will limit our sample to individuals with a high amount of dischargeable debt.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

We plan to obtain 10,000 responses from individuals after dropping individuals that fail our two initial attention checks. In our main analysis, we will limit our sample to individuals with a high amount of dischargeable debt. Each of our four groups (three treatments and control) will have 2,500 responses.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name

Harvard IRB

IRB Approval Date

2024-04-11

IRB Approval Number

IRB MOD23-1368-01

Analysis Plan