Job Amenities and Misallocation of Talent

Last registered on August 22, 2025

View Trial History

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

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Martin Abel

Affiliation

Middlebury College

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Patrizio Piraino

PI Affiliation

University of Notre Dame

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Natasha Jha

PI Affiliation

University of Notre Dame

Contact Investigator

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 (Hidden)

More details about the intervention are provided in the PAP.

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

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

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?

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