Government Mobile Salary Payments in Afghanistan

Last registered on July 05, 2023
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Government Mobile Salary Payments in Afghanistan
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001641
Initial registration date
November 10, 2016

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
November 10, 2016, 5:28 PM EST

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

Last updated
July 05, 2023, 12:03 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Afghanistan
Region
South Asia

Primary Investigator

Name
Michael Callen
Affiliation
London School of Economics
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Tarek Ghani
PI Affiliation
Washington University of St. Louis
PI Name
Joshua Blumenstock
PI Affiliation
University of California Berkeley
PI Name
Stefano Fiorin
PI Affiliation
Bocconi University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Anastasiia Faikina
PI Affiliation
Analysis Group
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2016-07-01
End date
2020-05-31
Keywords
Education, Finance & Microfinance, Governance, Labor, Post-conflict
Additional Keywords
mobile money, government effectiveness, ghost employees, attendance-based monitoring, teachers, leakage, payment uncertainty, absenteeism, corruption
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Building state capacity is uniquely challenging in fragile states. We report results from a randomized evaluation of a major Afghan government initiative to increase capacity by modernizing its payroll. The reform, which required teachers to biometrically register and receive salary payments via mobile money, did little to reduce payments to non-existent “ghost” workers, but significantly reduced delays. The reform also improved educational outcomes and increased formal financial inclusion. The impacts were not immediate – highlighting the importance of long time-horizons – and were largest in urban areas. The results have implications for state-building and are potentially actionable for policymakers.
External Link(s)
J-PAL Evaluation Summary Page

Registration Citation

Citation
Blumenstock, Joshua et al. 2023. "Government Mobile Salary Payments in Afghanistan." AEA RCT Registry. July 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1641-4.1
Former Citation
Blumenstock, Joshua et al. 2023. "Government Mobile Salary Payments in Afghanistan." AEA RCT Registry. July 05. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1641/history/185385
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This study aims to investigate the implementation of mobile salary payments (MSPs) in the Ministry of Education (MoE).

1) Mobile Salary Payments (MSP): Funds will go directly from the central bank to the mobile network operator (MNO). The MNO will then transfer salaries directly to the teacher. The biometric registration of teachers should identify ghost workers and mobile salary payments should improve the payment experience.

2) Current Payment System (Control): In cities, teachers are paid via banks and in rural areas teachers are paid via trusted agents.

The essential steps of the current payment system are detailed below:

Step 1: The school principal reports teacher attendance to the district-level bursar (Motamed) on a monthly basis.
Step 2: The bursar and the district human resources officer aggregate attendance for all district schools and submit a wage bill to the National Treasury.
Step 3: The Treasury authorizes a payment for the national monthly wage bill to Da Afghanistan Bank.
Step 4: Da Afghanistan Bank transfers a payment for all wages to the central branch of New Kabul Bank.
Step 5: New Kabul Bank transfers funds to the branch nearest to each bursar, charging a transaction fee for the transfer.
Step 6: The bursar retrieves the funds from their nearest bank branch. Step 7: Teachers visit the bursar at the end of the month to retrieve their wages as cash.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2017-01-02
Intervention End Date
2020-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Please see the Pre-Analysis Plan
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Please see the Pre-Analysis Plan
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Please see the Pre-Analysis Plan and the Paper Draft attached to this registry.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization performed by a computer
Randomization Unit
We organize the study into 401 registration zones. The pre-analysis plan and the attached academic paper provide complete details.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
401 Registration zones.
Sample size: planned number of observations
401 Registration zones. 1,530 schools, and 34,422 Ministry of Education Employees.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Our experimental sample consists of the 34,422 MoE employees who appear at least once
on official government payroll records between March 2017 and February 2020, ostensibly
because they worked in one of 1,530 schools in Kandahar, Nangarhar, and Parwan provinces
(spanning a total of 42 districts). These schools were divided into 401 experimental reg-
istration zones using information on schools’ location, number of employees, and security.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Please see the pre-analysis plan.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Government Mobile Salary Payments in Afghanistan
IRB Approval Date
2016-09-01
IRB Approval Number
161365S
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Mobile Salary Payments Pre-Analysis Plan

MD5: f2ac48261f511de2fedeedc4db0c915b

SHA1: 558f6c33ca76dc2c3b3f23577be7b1bd347f77ff

Uploaded At: January 28, 2019

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
May 31, 2020, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
May 31, 2020, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
401 registration zones in three provinces.
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Our experimental sample consists of the 34,422 MoE employees who appear at least once
on official government payroll records between March 2017 and February 2020.
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Early registration, Early mobile money payments (EE): 137 zones where payroll verification was scheduled to begin in May 2018 and MSP payments were scheduled to begin in October 2018. Early registration, Delayed mobile money payments (ED): 129 zones where payroll verification was also scheduled in May 2018, but MSP payments were scheduled to begin six months after those in the EE group (April 2019); Delayed registration, Delayed mobile money payment (DD or control): 135 zones where payroll verification and MSP payments were delayed respectively by four (September 2018) and six months (April 2019) with respect to the EE group.
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
Building state capacity is uniquely challenging in fragile states. We report results from a randomized evaluation of a major Afghan government initiative to increase capacity by modernizing its payroll. The reform, which required teachers to biometrically register and receive salary payments via mobile money, did little to reduce payments to non-existent “ghost” workers, but significantly reduced delays. The reform also improved educational outcomes and increased formal financial inclusion. The impacts were not immediate – highlighting the importance of long time-horizons – and were largest in urban areas. The results have implications for state-building and are potentially actionable for policymakers.
Citation
Blumenstock, Joshua E., Michael Callen, Anastasiia Faikina, Stefano Fiorin, and Tarek Ghani. "Strengthening Fragile States: Evidence from Mobile Salary Payments in Afghanistan." 2023
URL
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4477998

Reports & Other Materials