Back to History Current Version

Take-up of efficient cooking fuels and equilibrium outcomes for women's work

Last registered on December 26, 2024
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Demand meets supply: Shifting equilibrium outcomes for women’s work in India and improving energy efficiency of home production
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014920
Initial registration date
December 26, 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 26, 2024, 12:24 PM EST

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

Locations

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

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Prabhat Barnwal
Affiliation
Michigan State University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Farzana Afridi
PI Affiliation
Indian Statistical Institute
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Taryn Dinkelman
PI Affiliation
University of Notre Dame
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2024-06-10
End date
2026-12-31
Keywords
Environment & Energy, Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Many barriers keep women from working outside of their homes in low and middle-income countries. Those barriers have stymied the shift of women’s work from home to market that would come with structural transformation. In this project, we investigate interventions that target two factors that may limit the labor force participation of women: (1) lack of time and (2) lack of suitable jobs. We will assess the role of each factor, and both together, through a randomized controlled trial. Women switching from traditional solid fuel to liquified petroleum gas (LPG) are likely to save time which may free them for market work. In turn, Increased income through market work is likely to increase the women’s ability to pay for LPG. Our cross-randomized design allows us to study this complementarity. A key aim of this research design is to determine how the entrance of women into the workforce depends on their access to timesaving technologies (such as clean and efficient fuels). We will use both primary survey and administrative data from the job provider to evaluate our intervention.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Afridi, Farzana, Prabhat Barnwal and Taryn Dinkelman. 2024. "Demand meets supply: Shifting equilibrium outcomes for women’s work in India and improving energy efficiency of home production." AEA RCT Registry. December 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14920-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This intervention includes two treatments that are randomly assigned to households, primarily targeting women who have the main responsibility of household chores. First, the provision of jobs to women that can be completed virtually using a smartphone/tablet/laptop. Second, the provision of information on clean cooking fuel subsidies.
Intervention Start Date
2024-11-13
Intervention End Date
2025-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1. Primary cook’s employment (binary)
2. Primary cook's income (INR)
3. Primary cooks work hours (hours)
4. Clean cooking fuel usage (binary)
5. Monthly LPG refill purchase (kg)
6. Cooking hours (hours)
7. Solid fuel usage (in kgs)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our intervention targets women who also have primary household chores responsibility. We randomly assign households to three primary treatment groups and one control group– (1) access to digital jobs, (2) clean cooking fuel subsidy information, and (3) combined treatments (digital jobs and clean fuel subsidy information), (4) Control group. These jobs are primarily targeted at the women in the household. However, for a subgroup of randomly selected households within groups 1 and 3, we provide job offers to men instead of women. An additional sample of households from villages where no treatment is provided to any household serves as pure control.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
We have two stages of randomization, with a primary focus on household-level randomization in the second stage. We start with 104 villages with a total of 1531 households. We first randomly assign 34 villages to the pure control group where no household receives any treatment. In the remaining 70 villages, we randomly assign households to treatment groups 1 to 3 and to the control group.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
Total 104 villages and 1531 households. In the first stage, we clustered the treatment at the village level for comparison between villages with any treated households (70 villages) and villages with no treated households (i.e., 34 pure control villages). In the second stage, we randomize treatment at the household level in 70 villages.
Sample size: planned number of observations
1531
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Out of 1027 households from 70 villages, 230 households are assigned to digital job (women) treatment, 140 households are assigned to clean cooking fuel subsidy information treatment, 274 households are assigned to the combined job (women) and information treatment arm, and 140 households are assigned to the control group. Additionally, 112 households are assigned to digital job (male) treatment, and 131 households are assigned to the combined job and information treatment.
The remaining 34 pure control villages have 504 households.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Notre Dame
IRB Approval Date
2024-04-22
IRB Approval Number
24-03-8470
Analysis Plan