Pilot: College Education and Social Mobility

Last registered on March 31, 2025

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Pilot: College Education and Social Mobility

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0014882

Initial registration date

November 25, 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

December 03, 2024, 1:21 PM EST

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

Last updated

March 31, 2025, 3:18 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Kristoffer Balle Hvidberg

Affiliation

Aarhus University

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Claus Thustrup Kreiner

PI Affiliation

University of Copenhagen

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Stefanie Stantcheva

PI Affiliation

Harvard University

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2025-04-01

End date

2025-10-31

Keywords

Education

Additional Keywords

Intergenerational mobility

JEL code(s)

I24 I26

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

In this project, we will explore how people perceive college education: Is it "a great equalizer" or does it mainly benefit those who are already well-off? We will do this using customized surveys to elicit the respondents' perceptions of the effects of going to college.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Hvidberg, Kristoffer Balle, Claus Thustrup Kreiner and Stefanie Stantcheva. 2025. "Pilot: College Education and Social Mobility." AEA RCT Registry. March 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14882-3.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Participants in the survey will receive information on college enrollment rates and the correlation between college enrollment and income.

Intervention (Hidden)

For all participants in the survey, we will elicit i) their perceptions of the share of children from rich families (top 20% of the income distribution) that go to either college or elite college, ii) their perceptions of the share of children from poor families (bottom 20% of the income distribution) that go to either college or elite college, iii) their perceptions of where children from rich families end up in the income distribution conditional on going or not going to college or elite college, and iv) their perceptions of where children from poor families end up in the income distribution conditional on going or not going to college or elite college.

25% of participants will be assigned to the control group.

For 25% of the participants, we will provide them with the actual numbers for all the elicited numbers mentioned above.

For the remaining 50% of participants, we will provide broader information on the correlation between parental income and college admission. This group will be randomly assigned to one of two informational videos. Both videos present factual information about the relationship between parental income and educational outcomes, but differ in their specific focus and duration. The first is a one-minute video that emphasizes access to education (attendance rates), while the second two-minute video highlights subsequent economic outcomes (income gaps) for college attendees from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Intervention Start Date

2025-04-01

Intervention End Date

2025-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The respondents' perceptions of the average effect of going to college on income.
The perceived effect of going to college for the "marginal student".
Causes of and benefits from going to college
Education policy views

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

For more details, see the attached survey and pre-analysis plan.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We will invite people to participate in an online survey featuring an information provision experiment.

Experimental Design Details

This registration concerns the pilot study.

First, participant are split into two groups: Those who will be asked and informed about regular college, and those who will be asked and informed about elite colleges.

For each group, the respondents will receive the information described under the intervention section.

In the pilot, we will only survey US residents. When we launch the final survey, we also plan to conduct a similar survey for Danish residents, adjusting the survey to reflect the different institutional context.

Randomization Method

The randomization will be done by the Qualtrics platform.

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?