Is More Better? Evaluating Interventions to Increase Female Students' Interest in economics

Last registered on August 04, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Is More Better? Evaluating Interventions to Increase Female Students' Interest in economics
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016491
Initial registration date
July 31, 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
August 04, 2025, 6:06 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Ann Owen
Affiliation
Hamilton College
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Evelyn Skoy
PI Affiliation
Hamilton college
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Wei Zhan
PI Affiliation
Hamilton College
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-08-26
End date
2024-05-31
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Women are still a minority of undergraduate economics graduates in the U.S, representing roughly 30% of economics undergraduates. In this study, we implement an RCT that evaluates the impact of combining light touch interventions in an introductory economics course. We examine the effect of combinations of treatments on the decision by male and female students to take additional economics courses. Treatment and control groups are drawn from all introductory economics courses taught at a liberal arts college over a two-year period. We evaluate if more interventions increase the effectiveness of interventions. Our interventions include: (1) a welcome email to female students at the beginning of the semester, (2) manipulation of gender composition of peer-facilitated required study groups, and (3) an end-of-semester email congratulating students for course performance at or above the median. We use stratified random assignment to manipulate gender composition of the study groups to ensure that no female student is the sole member of a study group. These interventions are designed to be easily deployed across a variety of institutional types. We find that any one intervention increases the probability of female students taking additional economics courses, but we find no evidence that more interventions increase the probability further.
In addition, we show that light-touch interventions are not equally successful for all female students. They have the greatest impact on those with low levels of beginning-of-semester interest in economics, no previous high school experience with economics, but high confidence in their math ability. For women who self-report higher math skills or no previous economics experience, sending a welcome email may increase economics grades, and we find that for these same subgroups they are much more likely to attend office hours frequently when they receive the welcome email. We find some suggestive evidence that these light-touch interventions work through increasing a sense of
belonging in the economics classroom (Bayer et al., 2020a). Overall, these findings suggest that while light-touch interventions can be effective, there is a limit to their ability to encourage female students. This paper currently has a completed draft.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Owen, Ann, Evelyn Skoy and Wei Zhan. 2025. "Is More Better? Evaluating Interventions to Increase Female Students' Interest in economics." AEA RCT Registry. August 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16491-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
1) welcome email at beginning of semester, 2) required peer-facilitated study groups with gender composition manipulated, 3) end-of-semester congratulatory email to students who earned a course grade at or above the median. Interventions were assigned at the course-section level and students in any individual section would receive 0, 1, 2, or 3 of the interventions.
Intervention (Hidden)
The first treatment consisted of a simple welcome email to female students at the beginning of the semester. While instructors could choose the specific wording of this email, it was personalized with the student’s preferred name, welcomed the student to class, and invited them to open office hours. The second treatment was a peer-tutor facilitated required study group that ran for the entire semester. A small grade incentive (2%) was given for regular attendance. The composition of the group was determined by stratified random assignment to ensure each female student had at least one other female in her group to encourage a sense of belonging among female students. The third treatment was a congratulatory email sent after the conclusion of the semester to the students who received a median or higher grade. Interventions were assigned at the course-section level and students in any individual section would receive 0, 1, 2, or 3 of the interventions.
Intervention Start Date
2022-08-26
Intervention End Date
2024-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The primary outcome is students' interest in economics, measured by whether they enroll in additional economics courses after completing the introductory course and receiving the intervention(s).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We conducted an experiment to study the impact of combinations of three light-touch interventions on increasing female students’ interest in studying economics. The interventions were: (1) a simple welcome email sent to female students at the beginning of the semester; (2) a peer-tutor–facilitated study group that ran for the entire semester; and (3) a congratulatory email sent at the end of the semester to students who received a median or higher grade. Treatments were assigned at the section level for the introductory economics course. Each section was randomly assigned to one of four conditions: control (no intervention), one intervention, two interventions, or all three interventions.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
We randomized at the section level. For each section, we used a coin-flip-style randomization process to decide whether the section would receive each of the three light-touch interventions. This procedure resulted in sections being assigned to receive zero, one, two, or all three interventions.
Randomization Unit
Each section of the introductory economics course (cluster level).
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
18 sections of the introductory economics course
Sample size: planned number of observations
542 undergraduate students
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
5 sections in the control group, 7 sections with one intervention, 4 sections with two interventions, and 2 sections with all three interventions
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Hamilton College Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2022-08-19
IRB Approval Number
F22-007
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials