Unemployment Insurance Take-up

Last registered on October 07, 2024
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Unemployment Insurance Take-up
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014468
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, 6:57 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Elira Kuka
Affiliation
George Washington University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Bryan Stuart
PI Affiliation
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2024-09-23
End date
2024-10-31
Keywords
Other, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Takeup
JEL code(s)
J65, H5
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This project studies the determinants of Unemployment Insurance take-up among recently unemployed individuals.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Kuka, Elira and Bryan Stuart. 2024. "Unemployment Insurance Take-up." AEA RCT Registry. October 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14468-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We survey a sample of recently unemployed individuals about their labor market expectations, their knowledge about UI and their expected take-up of UI benefits. We then provide participants with information and collect again information about their labor market expectations, their knowledge about UI and their expected take-up of UI benefits. We will thus study whether information affected UI take-up decisions. Finally, we will ask participants about hypothetical changes to the UI program to study whether these changes would affect take-up.
Intervention (Hidden)
Our study participants will be recruited through Facebook ads advertising paid surveys for recently unemployed individuals.

The participants who satisfy our sample criteria will take a 20-minute survey, which asks about past work experience as well as beliefs about UI benefits and expected work and income in the next 6 months. We also ask individuals about the probability that they will apply for UI benefits in the next month. After collecting this baseline information, we show individuals a short video containing information about UI benefits and average earnings after job loss. This information is randomized across participants, so that some participants are given more or less optimistic information about UI and earnings after job loss. After showing them the video, we again ask participants their beliefs about UI benefits and expected work and income in the next 6 months and the probability that they will apply for UI benefits in the next month.

We then ask participants the probability they will apply for benefits if the UI program was reformed in several hypothetical ways. We have 7 hypothetical scenarios, and each participant is randomly asked 4 of these. Three of the scenarios are randomized to provide exogenous variation in the hypothetical scenarios.
Intervention Start Date
2024-09-23
Intervention End Date
2024-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcome of interest is the subjective expectation of applying for UI benefits in the next 4 weeks.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will collect baseline information, provide information, then collect information again. Our analysis will therefore study whether participants change their expected UI application probability after receiving information, in a before/after analysis. Moreover, since the information we provide is also randomized, we will compare across (randomized) individuals. We will combine this information with a structural model of the decision to apply for UI.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by Qualtrics within the survey.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
No clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
400 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
400
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
The George Washington University Office of Human Research
IRB Approval Date
2024-04-17
IRB Approval Number
NCR224488
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials