Merit and Job Allocation

Last registered on May 27, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Merit and Job Allocation
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016034
Initial registration date
May 23, 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 27, 2025, 7:16 AM EDT

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

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Puja Bhattacharya
Affiliation
University of Arkansas
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jeevant Rampal
PI Affiliation
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-05-23
End date
2028-06-30
Keywords
Behavior, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Inequality, fairness, efficiency
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Different jobs usually require different skill sets. Hence, certain jobs are better performed by some than by others. A popular notion considers selecting workers for jobs based on individual merit – the ‘meritocratic’ principle – to be fair and efficient. However, in situations where multiple people need to be assigned to different jobs, assigning an individual who is the best available for a job may not always maximize productivity. We focus on a setting where two workers need to be assigned across two jobs. We show that when one of the workers is better at both the jobs, there arises a tension between a desert claim and an efficiency claim for justifying why an individual may merit a certain job. We conduct online experiments that test for and quantify whether individuals have such desert-based distributive preferences.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bhattacharya, Puja and Jeevant Rampal. 2025. "Merit and Job Allocation." AEA RCT Registry. May 27. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16034-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We implement a primary elicitation using a 'spectator' design where "Spectators" are asked to assign two jobs between two anonymous "Workers". Spectators and Workers are participants recruited using an online survey platform (Prolific or similar). The jobs are selected to resemble familiar activities for workers on online platforms. Spectators are presented with a measure of 'skills' of the the two Workers on the two jobs. They observe the skills and choose a job-assignment for the pair of workers. A job assignment is a one-to-one matching of a worker to a job.
Intervention Start Date
2025-05-23
Intervention End Date
2025-08-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Job-assignment decision of the Spectators
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Spectators are matched to a pair of workers and are informed about the two jobs the workers will complete, for how long, and the piece-rate for completing individual tasks on the jobs. In addition, the spectators are informed about the individual performance of the two workers from a preliminary survey where the workers worked on the two jobs. The spectator observes a performance profile and decides which worker will be assigned to which job in the future. The spectator is told that within a month of them completing the survey, the workers will be invited back to work on the assigned job.

The experiment presents the spectators with different performance profiles to tease apart preference for 'desert-based' and 'efficiency-based' considerations behind job-assignment decisions.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in Qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
600 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
600 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Treatments involve different profiles of workers' skills the Spectator is presented with. Barring the real skill profile of the workers the spectators are matched with, the spectators will be randomized into 5 hypothetical skill profiles, i.e., approximately 120 individuals in each profile or treatment.
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 Arkansas Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2025-04-29
IRB Approval Number
2410567198
Analysis Plan