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Experimental Evidence on Subsidized Transportation for Girls in Remote Contexts

Last registered on June 11, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Experimental Evidence on Subsidized Transportation for Girls in Remote Contexts
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014355
Initial registration date
May 29, 2025

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
June 11, 2025, 6:27 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Pakistan
Region
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

Primary Investigator

Name
Sofia Amaral
Affiliation
World Bank, South Asia Gender Innovation Lab
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Kate Vyborny
PI Affiliation
World Bank
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Isis Gaddis
PI Affiliation
World Bank
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Shyam Srinivasan
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2024-07-15
End date
2026-09-30
Keywords
Education, Gender
Additional Keywords
Gender, Transport, Rural, Post-Primary Education, Sexual Harassment, Safety
JEL code(s)
J16, O18, R41
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study evaluates a large-scale intervention that subsidizes safe school transport for girls in rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan, a region where steep terrain, long distances to school, and entrenched gender norms result in one of the widest gender gaps in education in the country. Using a cluster-randomized controlled trial across schools in 7 districts of KP - of which 168 school clusters were selected for phase 1 of the study, and an additional 203 school clusters to a phase 2-, the evaluation tests the impact of subsidized, girls-only pick and drop transport services on school enrollment, attendance, and learning outcomes among middle-school–age girls. The intervention targets both in-school and out-of-school girls who reside roughly more than 1.6 km from the nearest government middle school. Transport is organized through local parent-teacher councils (PTCs), with private drivers vetted for safety. To understand mechanisms we cross-randomize among treated cluster a "safety salience" treatment designed to highlight risks and mitigation strategies to drivers. The research aims to disentangle three potential constraints to girls’ schooling—affordability, accessibility, and safety—and to explore how social norms shape take-up and impact. We also assess spillovers across siblings. This study contributes to a growing literature on gender, mobility, and education by testing a scalable, government-led transport model in a high-need, low-accessibility setting. Findings will inform program expansion and broader education and gender policy in Pakistan and similar contexts.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Amaral, Sofia et al. 2025. "Experimental Evidence on Subsidized Transportation for Girls in Remote Contexts." AEA RCT Registry. June 11. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14355-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name
Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Type
government
URL
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The main intervention to be evaluated consists of the provision of subsidized transport to girls. The subsidized transportation will consist of the recruitment of privately run vans with drivers vetted by the Government and committed to ensuring safe transportation for girls. The level of subsidy, as a fraction of the unit cost of providing the transport, will be determined after the baseline survey, based on the respondents’ (parents of girls eligible to attend middle school) reported willingness to pay for transport. Girls will travel in vans designated only for girls’ school transport on a subscription basis. The intervention will therefore address barriers to girls’ education in three dimensions: i) affordability by alleviating the economic burden of traveling to school for girls from remote areas, ii) accessibility, by ensuring girls have a reliable mode of transportation available, and ii) safety by ensuring only vetted drivers and other female passengers are able to travel in these vans. The intervention will be delivered and managed locally by parent-teacher councils (PTCs). To better understand the role of safety, we cross-randomize a safety salience nudge to drivers. Drivers will received regular calls to make salient the role of importance girls' safety and of adequate conduct of service providers.
Intervention Start Date
2024-07-15
Intervention End Date
2026-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1- School Enrollment (binary); 2- Grade Completion (binary); 3- Attendance Rate (Continuous).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
1- Learning; 2- Commute experiences (we will measure daily commute time, mode of transport, safety and overall satisfaction with commute); 3- Parents’ perceptions of safety and commute quality; 4- School expenditures (including transport expenditures); 5- Gender attitudes, aspirations and social norms; 6- Mobility.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We will make use of survey data of students, parents, and administrative records. The effect of safety salience will be estimated only with respect to outcome 2 (commute experience).

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
To evaluate causal effects of the intervention we design a cluster-randomized control trial across school clusters. In school clusters randomly assigned to the treatment group, eligible girls are offered subsidized transport in designated vans. In school clusters randomly assigned to the control group, eligible girls will not be offered subsidized transport. The entire catchment area of one middle school is the cluster. In phase 1 of the study (academic year of 2024-2025) the study sample consists of 168 school clusters of which about 86 clusters will be randomly allocated to the treatment group. Within each treated school cluster, all girls eligible to attend middle school, who live at least 1.6 km by road from the middle school, will be offered subsidized transport. This includes girls who are currently enrolled in the middle school, girls who were enrolled in grade 5 of primary school during the previous academic year and are eligible to transition to middle school for the 2024-25 academic year, and girls who have dropped out but could potentially be enrolled back into the education system at the middle school level, if their mobility barriers are addressed. It is worth noticing that in this context there aren’t mixed-gender schools and thus, the project is only focusing on studying the effects of the program on girls. In phase 2 of the trial, the pilot will be extended to additional 3 districts. In phase 2 (academic year of 2025-2026) 203 school clusters were sampled to take part in the study of which 102 are part of the treatment group. We further create experimental variation in a safety salience treatment designed to make safety concerns salient to drivers (cross-randomized at the level of treated school clusters).
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer using Stata.
Randomization Unit
School cluster.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
371 school clusters.
Sample size: planned number of observations
The final sample will be finalized depending on budget restrictions and negotiations with the implementing partner.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Treated: 188 -- 86 school clusters in phase 1 & 102 school clusters in phase 2
Control: 183 -- 82 school clusters in phase 1 & 101 school clusters in phase 2
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Health Media Lab IRB
IRB Approval Date
2024-07-21
IRB Approval Number
IRB #2625
Analysis Plan