Information intervention on college students

Last registered on January 22, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information intervention on college students
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014970
Initial registration date
January 21, 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
January 22, 2025, 9:19 AM EST

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
Michael Cuna
Affiliation
University of Chicago
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Elaine Shen
PI Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-01-21
End date
2025-03-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study tests how information asymmetry shapes students actions in college. Students are assigned to either a control group, or one of two information treatment groups on actions to take during college in order to find a job.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Cuna, Michael and Elaine Shen. 2025. "Information intervention on college students." AEA RCT Registry. January 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14970-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Students will be asked to fill out a career survey. First we will elicit their current strategy in finding a job (e.g. total number of jobs applied to). Then we will elicit their beliefs about others and what strategies would be optimal to take in order to find a job. Finally we ask students whether they would be willing to pay for a service that would provide them with 5 different profiles to network with.

Students will be randomized into one of three conditions: 1) control 2) information on availability of networking/cold emailing as a resource 3) detailed information on returns of networking/cold emailing
Intervention Start Date
2025-01-21
Intervention End Date
2025-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Willingness to network
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Willingness to network through WTP and actual networking actions

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
randomized information intervention
Experimental Design Details
The experiment will randomize information on cold networking as a tool to find a job while in college. The information will serve to disentangle pure information channel from return/preference channel
Randomization Method
completely randomized design
Randomization Unit
student
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
up to 4000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
up to 4000
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board The University of Chicago
IRB Approval Date
2024-09-30
IRB Approval Number
IRB24-1552
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