Water Bill Payment Propensity

Last registered on August 28, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Water Bill Payment Propensity
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014214
Initial registration date
August 19, 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
August 28, 2024, 2:48 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
Jean-Pierre Dube
Affiliation
University of Chicago Booth School of Business
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Chanwool Kim
PI Affiliation
University of Chicago
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-08-19
End date
2024-11-30
Keywords
Behavior, Environment & Energy, Finance & Microfinance, Other
Additional Keywords
payment default, personalization, price discrimination, municipal finance
JEL code(s)
L00, D12, H00
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We will run a large-scale RCT that randomizes discounts to households' water bills in a large US city. The goal consists of learning about factors affecting propensity to pay. We will then design a personalized pricing algorithm to jointly address the problem of reducing payment delinquency rates for disadvantaged households while improving municipal revenues collected on water bills.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Dube, Jean-Pierre and Chanwool Kim. 2024. "Water Bill Payment Propensity." AEA RCT Registry. August 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14214-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
randomize % discounts off the water bill for single-family home accounts on a quarterly billing cycle
Intervention Start Date
2024-08-21
Intervention End Date
2024-11-21

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Water usage
Bill payment behavior
Water debt accumulation behavior
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
- Each household is randomly assigned to 1 of 9 cells {full price, 10% off, 20% off, 30% off, 40% off, 50% off, 60% off, 70% off, 80% off}.
Note: Partner imposed a 50% minimum discount for their current financial assistance recipients at Tier 2 . They will instead be randomly assigned to 1 of 4 cells {50% off, 60% off, 70% off, 80% off}.

- During the sample period, all other sources of financial aid will be suspended to isolate the "price effect."

- Cells remain active for 3 months, and each cycle begins between date August 21, 2024, and date November 20, 2024.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization conducted by computer in an office
Randomization Unit
individual household account
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
20,000 accounts
Sample size: planned number of observations
20,000 accounts
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
9 discount cells including "no discount" control cell
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
SBS-IRB
IRB Approval Date
2024-08-19
IRB Approval Number
IRB24-1449
Analysis Plan