What if your partner works from home more often? A vignette experiment on labor supply

Last registered on May 21, 2025

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

What if your partner works from home more often? A vignette experiment on labor supply

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0015637

Initial registration date

May 16, 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

May 21, 2025, 3:38 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Netherlands

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Max van Lent

Affiliation

Leiden University

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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Jordy Meekes

PI Affiliation

Leiden University

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PI Name

Pim Koopmans

PI Affiliation

CPB

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PI Name

Robert Dur

PI Affiliation

Erasmus University Rotterdam

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Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2025-04-11

End date

2025-05-30

Keywords

Gender, Labor, Welfare

Additional Keywords

work from home, labor supply, household behavior, gender differences, vignette experiment

JEL code(s)

D1, J2, J3, M5

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

Gender gaps in the labor market are persistent. One reason for this phenomenon is that anticipation of unexpected events (such as care for family members, animals, and chores) keeps one partner (often women) from working more hours. In this project we study whether people wish to work more hours if their partner works from home more.

We develop a vignette experiment in which respondents choose between jobs that vary in wage, total work hours, and work from home (WFH) hours. Next, we experimentally vary the (fictitious) WFH hours of the partner and analyze the impact of partner's WFH hours on the job choices of the respondent.

Our results will show whether and to what extent partners' WFH hours affect labor supply decisions of an individual.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Dur, Robert et al. 2025. "What if your partner works from home more often? A vignette experiment on labor supply." AEA RCT Registry. May 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15637-1.0

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Our intervention is a randomized (fictitious) change in the WFH hours of the respondent's partner, while keeping everything else the same (such as total work hours and partner's earnings).

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2025-04-11

Intervention End Date

2025-05-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The difference in job choices for a respondent when their partner has different WFH hours. This is: number of work hours, WFH hours, and whether the job allows to choose start and end times of the work day.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We develop and implement a vignette experiment. Our sample consists of people that have a partner who has a job, and is about 1200 people.
We ask the respondent several times to state which of two jobs they prefer. Jobs vary by (hourly) wage, paid work hours, the option to choose one’s start and end times of the work day, and number of WFH hours. We randomize the vignettes using a D-efficient design.
After 6 (out of 12) choices we have our treatment. The treatment states that the number of hours the partner works from home has changed (in a randomized way). Then the respondent makes another 6 choices.
Our experiment wants to study the impact of a change in WFH hours of the partner on labor supply. We therefore compare the choices made using the current WFH of the partner and the experimentally randomized increased or decreased hours of WFH from the partner.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

We randomize the vignettes that people get using a D-efficient design.
We randomize the WFH hours of the partner by randomly increasing or decreasing the number of hours the partner works from home, in steps of 8 hours.

Randomization Unit

We randomize at the individual level, not stratified.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

1200 respondents

Sample size: planned number of observations

1200 respondents

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

We have 2 treatment arms, one where the WFH of the partner increases, one where it decreases. The size of the increase or decrease varies in steps of 8 hours bounded by 0 and the maximum total number of work hours.
Everyone is also in the control group (i.e. first half of the vignettes).

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

With an assumed intracluster correlation of 0.2 (i.e the within person correlation), we have an effective number of observations of (1200 respondents, with 12 choices, 0.2 ICC) 4500. The standardized MDE is (using the conventional alpha=0.05, beta=0.8) 0.059 of a SD.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB