Muslim Adolescents and Authority: Behavioral Experiments in Pakistan

Last registered on July 16, 2016

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Muslim Adolescents and Authority: Behavioral Experiments in Pakistan

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0001431

Initial registration date

July 16, 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

July 16, 2016, 5:59 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Pakistan

Region

Sindh, Punjab

Primary Investigator

Name

Alexandra Avdeenko

Affiliation

World Bank

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Juanita Vasquez-Escallon

PI Affiliation

University of Mannheim

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2016-07-23

End date

2020-08-01

Keywords

Welfare

Additional Keywords

Authority, Religion

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

Every fifth person in South Asia is an adolescent. Adolescents face exciting, yet also challenging changes. The challenges are rooted in the adolescents' exclusion from basic decision-making, strong and often harmful social norms, and limited access to information on issues that influence their socio-economic wellbeing, development and lives. To address these challenges, UNICEF and the IKEA Foundation conduct an impact evaluation for a multi-sectorial adolescents programme. The baseline assessment was conducted in 761 villages in rural and urban areas of Punjab and Sindh in Pakistan prior to the roll-out of the program. It revealed exceptional levels of vulnerability of the group of interest. The baseline results indicate the prevalence of very strong social norms and low levels of adolescents' self-determination. In July 2016 we conduct a series of well-tested behavioral experiments to assess adolescents' social norms such as the anticipation of rejection/condemnation from others, the likelihood to obey and beliefs about their counterparts' action. Furthermore, we want to observe whether adolescents will initiate a renegotiation of conditions offered to them. We will vary the setting by randomly allocating whether the adolescents are playing against other adolescents or against adults. Moreover, we will randomize the appearance of religious leaders during the sessions (in 16 villages), whereby in 8 villages the imam will be asked to additionally read a prayer prior to the sessions. In total, the behavioral experiments will be conducted in 24 villages, with 8 adults and 16 adolescents. The activities will partly be conducted with the same individuals (adolescents, parents, imams) who responded to the baseline survey. This will allow linking the datasets to understand the relationship between individual characteristics (such as socio-economic status), attitudes and norms. In the coming years, 12 of these villages will receive the UNICEF program, 12 others not.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Avdeenko, Alexandra and Juanita Vasquez-Escallon. 2016. "Muslim Adolescents and Authority: Behavioral Experiments in Pakistan." AEA RCT Registry. July 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1431-1.0

Former Citation

Avdeenko, Alexandra and Juanita Vasquez-Escallon. 2016. "Muslim Adolescents and Authority: Behavioral Experiments in Pakistan." AEA RCT Registry. July 16. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1431/history/9432

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

In 24 villages we will play well-tested behavioral games. We will vary the setting by randomly allocating whether the adolescents are playing against other adolescents or against adults. Moreover, we will randomize the appearance of religious leaders during the sessions (in 16 villages), whereby in 8 villages the Imam will be asked to additionally read a prayer prior to the sessions.

Intervention (Hidden)

We conduct a dictator game and measure what the participants expect about other individual's altruism. Using an ultimatum game we will measure subjects' rejection anticipation. We also play a prisoners dilemma game and a stag hunt game to measure subjects' belief about the other counterpart’s action. During the payout we observe whether the participants would initiate a renegotiation of the conditions offered to them (Small et al. 2007). To control for confounding factors we also measure risk and discounting towards the future. Additionally, we measure the adolescent's rate of integration within the group of participants.

Given the cultural context, the group consisting of 16 adolescents and 8 parents at most will be divided by gender into two group after an introduction. The individuals will be instructed that they might play the games against any person from the group but against individuals from the same household (max 22 counter-players).

The experimental protocol benefitted from the studies by Avdeenko and Gilligan (2015), Delavande and Zafar (2015) and Chakravaty et al. (2015).

Intervention Start Date

2016-07-23

Intervention End Date

2020-08-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

We will study the following outcomes:
- share shared with a needy person, depending on indicated age of the person who will receive the donation
- expected share that others have shared with needy individual
- fraction of adolescents/ adults who choose to cooperate
- likelihood to start renegotiation on payout
- confidence
Further outcomes on integration and role in the community will be collected in a set of focus group discussions and surveys.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We play the following games with the participants:
- dictator game + measure what the participants expect about other individual's altruism;
- ultimatum game
- prisoners dilemma game
- stag hunt game
- renegotiation of the conditions offered during payout
Further outcomes on integration and role in the community will be collected in a set of focus group discussions and surveys.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

At individual level: Random draw of options
At village level: Random assignment on computer to whether Imam is present

Randomization Unit

At individual level: Random draw of options by participants (experimental sessions)
At village level: Random assignment on computer to whether Imam is present

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

24 regular participants in 24 villages + 24 imams = 600 individuals

Sample size: planned number of observations

max 600 participants

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Out of a total of 24 villages, imams will be invited to 16 sessions. In 8 they will be requested to hold a prayer.
At the individual level: We randomize whether an individual is informed on whether he/she is playing against (1) an adult or (2) an adolescent or (3) whether no further information about the counterpart's characteristics is provided.

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB