Scorching Streets: Heatwaves and Gig Workers in India

Last registered on June 10, 2025

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Scorching Streets: Heatwaves and Gig Workers in India

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0015839

Initial registration date

May 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

May 21, 2025, 4:12 PM EDT

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

Last updated

June 10, 2025, 4:04 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

India

Region

Northern

Primary Investigator

Name

Sheetal Sekhri

Affiliation

Sheetal Sekhri, Associate Professor, University of Virginia

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2024-06-01

End date

2025-09-30

Keywords

Behavior, Health, Labor

Additional Keywords

Heatwave, gig workers

JEL code(s)

J22, I12, Q54

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

As climate change intensifies, extreme heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe, disproportionately affecting outdoor gig workers who lack labor protections and are paid based on output. In India’s booming gig economy, delivery workers face prolonged exposure to heat with limited means to adapt. This project will evaluate whether small, timely cash transfers can help these workers cope with extreme heat. During the peak summer months in Delhi and Gurgaon, India, we will randomly assign some workers to receive a cash transfer each time a heatwave is declared. We will track work activity and health symptoms through weekly surveys. The goal is to assess whether this support helps workers maintain productivity and reduce heat-related health issues. The findings will offer actionable insights for designing scalable safety nets to better protect vulnerable workers during extreme weather events.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Sekhri, Sheetal. 2025. "Scorching Streets: Heatwaves and Gig Workers in India." AEA RCT Registry. June 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15839-2.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Cash transfers of INR 200 will be provided to treated gig delivery workers for each occurrence of a heatwave.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2025-05-19

Intervention End Date

2025-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Number of workdays in the week; Average work hours per day during the week; Total number of deliveries completed during the week; Health outcomes; Adaptation outcomes

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We will conduct a randomized controlled trial with gig delivery workers in Delhi and Gurgaon, India, during the peak summer months of 2025. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a treatment or a control group. Each time a heatwave is officially declared, workers in the treatment group will receive a cash transfer of INR 200. Control group participants will not receive this transfer. All participants will be notified in advance of each heatwave event via phone or WhatsApp. Weekly phone or WhatsApp-based surveys will be used to track work activity, health symptoms, and adaptation behaviors.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization was done using a computer program in STATA. Participants were stratified by industry type before random assignment. Within each industry stratum, individuals were randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group using a reproducible random number generator to enable transparency and replicability. Out of the total 276 participants, 137 were allocated to the treatment group through this procedure.

Randomization Unit

Individual gig delivery workers

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A

Sample size: planned number of observations

2208 observations: 276 participants × 1 baseline survey, 6 weekly short surveys, and 1 endline survey per participant.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

276 individual gig delivery workers - 139 control and 137 treated individuals

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

Set-up: Total sample size: 276 individuals Compliance rate= 80% Significance level (α): 0.05 (two-tailed) Power (1−β): 0.80 Standard deviation (σ): 1 (assuming standardized outcome) This will yield a minimum detectable effect size of 0.34 of a standard deviation. Because we employ stratified randomization, the actual statistical power may be higher than estimated if the stratification variable (type of gig industry, in our study) is strongly correlated with the outcome. In such cases, stratification reduces the residual variance of the treatment effect estimator, effectively improving precision. Therefore, the calculated MDE of 0.34 should be considered a conservative estimate.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB