Cooperation and undercutting

Last registered on June 14, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Cooperation and undercutting
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013673
Initial registration date
May 23, 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
May 29, 2024, 1:46 PM EDT

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

Last updated
June 14, 2026, 3:21 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Varun K
Affiliation
Harvard University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-01-01
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Labor
Additional Keywords
negotiations, wage floors, undercutting
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In this trial, we plan to understand the nature of negotiations on wages between firms and workers in low and middle income countries.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
K, Varun. 2026. "Cooperation and undercutting." AEA RCT Registry. June 14. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13673-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-01-01
Intervention End Date
2026-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Negotiation data: i) Undercutting ii) Successful negotiation
Belief data: a) Reservation wage b) Going wage

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Vignette Survey: a) Going rate; agreement on the rate among workers for both type of jobs b) Beliefs of workers about number of hours it would take them to complete a fixed work job and the wage asked for the job.
c) Vignettes to get at worker's beliefs about how the wage demands of different workers vary with the number of hours they expect to complete the fixed work job in
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Done in office by the computer.
Randomization Unit
Market level
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
.
Sample size: planned number of observations
5000 individual level observations on negotiations. 800 surveys with workers to get at beliefs about reservation and going wages. 300 workers : vignette surveys
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
For experiment: 15 markets control, 15 markets treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Chicago
IRB Approval Date
2024-04-23
IRB Approval Number
IRB24-0376
Analysis Plan