Field Experiment on Political Connections and Entrepreneurship in Tunisia and Senegal

Last registered on October 07, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Field Experiment on Political Connections and Entrepreneurship in Tunisia and Senegal
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014465
Initial registration date
September 24, 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
October 07, 2024, 6:55 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region
Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of South Carolina

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-01-01
End date
2023-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This pre-registration documents our field experiment conducted in Tunisia and Senegal that invited young prospective entrepreneurs to participate in entrepreneurship trainings in their country following an online survey they completed.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bhandari, Abhit and Robert Kubinec. 2024. "Field Experiment on Political Connections and Entrepreneurship in Tunisia and Senegal." AEA RCT Registry. October 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14465-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Our intervention was to randomly invite a subset of our survey respondents to an entrepreneurship training in the country if they indicates at least some interest in entrepreneurship. We then included government officials in these trainings and measured whether respondents interacted with these officials, and if these interactions further stimulated interest in entrepreneurship.
Intervention Start Date
2022-05-01
Intervention End Date
2023-06-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our primary endpoint is an ordinal measure of entrepreneurship interest.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
We use a four-category ordinal outcome for interest in entrepreneurship from Not at all to Very Likely.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We also measure respondents' political connections on a 1 to 10 scale.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
We use this scale to measure mediation effects of the treatment.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our design involved inviting a random subset of young people who completed an online survey about their career interests to our training. We had the subjects complete pre and post-test questionnaires about their entrepreneurship interest and political connections. We repeated the original survey at 6 months to a year after intervention for our endline measure.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by computer
Randomization Unit
We randomized within reported levels of interest in entrepreneurship to ensure balance on this pre-treatment characteristic.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Everyone was in the same cluster.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We targeted 100 subjects and recruited 87.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Only one cluster
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See our attached PAP for a full power analysis.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
New York University Abu Dhabi
IRB Approval Date
2022-02-21
IRB Approval Number
HRPP-2022-21
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
June 01, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 31, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Final sample size was 971.
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

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Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
Although our understanding of the important role of broken institutions in economic development has grown significantly, we still lack a strong understanding of the mechanisms by which exclusionary political-economic arrangements reproduce themselves over time. To better undrstand this problem, we conducted online and offline experiments about political connections and early-stage career choices in a national sample of college-educated young people in Tunisia and Senegal. We first administered surveys with embedded conjoint experiments to 1,110 young people to assess the determinants of entrepreneurial intention. Next, we recruited a randomized subsample of survey respondents to participate in entrepreneurship training sessions in Tunis and Dakar in which government officials offered advice to young entrepreneurs. The survey results reveal that young people are uncertain whether connections will affect their career prospects, yet rate connections to political parties as the most valuable attribute a prospective entrepreneur could possess. Randomized training sessions increased entrepreneurs' intention to create businesses, with 10-17% of this effect mediated by an exogenous increase in political connections. By demonstrating the powerful impact of political connections on desires to enter the business world, these results suggest that entrepreneurship promotion efforts will be of limited value without providing access to relevant policymakers.
Citation
Kubinec, Robert, Abhit Bhandari, Sekou Jabateh, and Hamza Mighri. 2024. “The Political Nature of Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Tunisia and Senegal.” OSF Preprints. May 28. doi:10.31219/osf.io/unby5.

Reports & Other Materials