Impact of Smartphone Ownership and Digital Interventions on Women Empowerment

Last registered on February 22, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Impact of Smartphone Ownership and Digital Interventions on Women Empowerment
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0014973
Initial registration date
December 18, 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 20, 2024, 2:17 PM EST

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

Last updated
February 22, 2026, 5:52 AM EST

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

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Primary Investigator

Name
Shagata Mukherjee
Affiliation
CSBC, Ashoka University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Sharon Barnhardt
PI Affiliation
CSBC, Ashoka University
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PI Name
Dinabandhu Mondal
PI Affiliation
CSBC, Ashoka University
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PI Name
Akarshik Banerjee
PI Affiliation
CSBC, Ashoka University & The George Washington University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-01-06
End date
2027-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Gender
Additional Keywords
Smartphone, Technology, Digital Services, Empowerment
JEL code(s)
J16, J24, O33, L96, D13, D83
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
According to a recent report by Oxfam (India Inequality Report 2022), only a third of the women in India own a mobile phone, whereas for men the ownership rate is over 60%. This wide gender gap in mobile phone usage is a matter of great concern as owning a mobile phone is identified to be pivotal to promoting the empowerment of women by the United Nations under target 5.b of its fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-5). This project aims to study the causal effect of providing smartphones and training interventions on women empowerment.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Banerjee, Akarshik et al. 2026. "Impact of Smartphone Ownership and Digital Interventions on Women Empowerment." AEA RCT Registry. February 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14973-3.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will provide women with internet-enabled smartphones and a monthly recharge of internet data pack. In addition, we will also provide digital services training. The study will be conducted in two phases. After completing the first phase, we will continue monthly data recharge and digital interventions to assess the long-term impact.
Intervention Start Date
2025-02-15
Intervention End Date
2027-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome of the study is women empowerment.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
A composite women empowerment index will be computed through survey-based measures covering various dimensions such as financial inclusion, social connectedness, health and hygiene, gender attitudes, attitudes towards rejection of IPV, and World Bank's women empowerment measures.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Financial well-being, intrahousehold bargaining power, mental health, multidimensional poverty, household consumption, social comparison, and body esteem
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Financial well-being will be assessed from items tracking subjects’ financial condition. Intrahousehold bargaining power will be measured through the willingness to pay game to receive the money herself rather than the spouse. Mental health will be derived through survey-based measures of subjects’ psychological distress. Multidimensional poverty will incorporate deprivations across multiple dimensions of child wellbeing, housing quality, asset ownership, and hygiene practices. Household consumption will be assessed by the aggregate spending across a range of consumption baskets. Similarly, social comparison and body esteem will be derived through survey-based measures.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will randomly assign women into treatment and control groups. The treatment group women will receive smartphones, and the control group will not.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done by a computer system.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization will be at the village level.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
24 clusters
Sample size: planned number of observations
768 samples
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
256 samples from each treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
The parameters of the power calculation are based on literature on outcomes in India and other developing countries. The standard deviation used for our calculations lie in the range of 0.54-1.02 (Haushofer & Shapiro, 2016; Ismayilova et al., 2018; Kotsadam & Villanger, 2020; Nandi et al., 2016; Sorgente et al., 2023). The intracluster correlation is in the range of 0.01 to 0.1 (Fine et al., 2021; Ismayilova et al., 2018; Joag et al., 2020; Srinivasan et al., 2022). The attrition rate chosen for this study is 20% (Ali et al., 2021; Grantham-McGregor et al., 2020; Malani et al., n.d.; Srinivasan et al., 2022). Based on these numbers we estimate a sample size of 32 per village for 24 villages leading to a total of 768 observations. Sample per treatment arm is 256. This will enable us to attain a statistical power of 75% given a 5% level of significance, considering a 50-50 split between treatment and control groups, and 86% when we compare control group with treatment group 1 and 2 combined.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ashoka University Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2024-12-10
IRB Approval Number
24-E-10048-Mondal
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre Analysis Plan

MD5: 7d7176d5ade0e8906f3ad3c25d7cbf98

SHA1: 3828f6bf62fee5ba10b9426cb9903037d7bb6267

Uploaded At: February 22, 2026