Job Amenities and Misallocation of Talent

Last registered on August 22, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Job Amenities and Misallocation of Talent
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016581
Initial registration date
August 19, 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 22, 2025, 5:49 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
Martin Abel
Affiliation
Middlebury College
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Patrizio Piraino
PI Affiliation
University of Notre Dame
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PI Name
Natasha Jha
PI Affiliation
University of Notre Dame
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2025-08-19
End date
2026-08-18
Keywords
Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We test how different job amenities in terms of flexibility affect the interest of people to accept work offers and how this relationship varies across gender. In addition, we will investigate how demands for flexibility affects the allocation of talent.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Abel, Martin, Natasha Jha and Patrizio Piraino. 2025. "Job Amenities and Misallocation of Talent." AEA RCT Registry. August 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16581-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We offer participants different contracts and measure their willingness to accept these jobs.
Intervention Start Date
2025-08-25
Intervention End Date
2025-11-25

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcome is the binary decision whether to accept jobs with varying wage levels and amenities.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
More details about the primary outcomes are provided in the PAP.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We recruit a sample of participants located in the U.S. online and offer them contracts with varying wage levels, contract length and job amenities (focusing on job flexibility). We measure whether they are interested in accepting each contract and will then randomly select and implement one of their choices.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The randomization of contract types is done within the survey software (Qualtrics). The random selection of one of participants' choices is done by the research team using STATA.
Randomization Unit
The order of contract length and job amenities are randomized at the individual level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We plan to recruit 1,500 individuals, of whom we expect around 1,200 to pass our attention check. Each participant makes a total to 16 contract decisions.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
In the first-stage, we will employ a within-subject design, so we will observe every participant in each flexibility variation. In the second stage, we will randomly select one of the four flexibility types, resulting in an expected treatment arm size of around 300.
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 Notre Dame
IRB Approval Date
2024-09-03
IRB Approval Number
IRB24-05-8570
Analysis Plan

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