Endogenous Transmission

Last registered on January 17, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Endogenous Transmission
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017540
Initial registration date
December 22, 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
January 09, 2026, 8:44 AM EST

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

Last updated
January 17, 2026, 1:48 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Christopher Roth
Affiliation
University of Cologne
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Shakked Noy
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Thomas Graeber
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2025-12-22
End date
2025-12-23
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
See analysis plan.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Graeber, Thomas, Shakked Noy and Christopher Roth. 2026. "Endogenous Transmission ." AEA RCT Registry. January 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17540-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
See analysis plan document
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2025-12-22
Intervention End Date
2025-12-23

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
See analysis plan Whether respondents decide to record a message to transmit information for each of the two
companies. This is a dummy variable indicating whether or not the respondent decided to
record a messagedocument
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our experiments involve transmission of information about two unknown states: (i) the
earnings performance of a US company that sells IT equipment and (ii) the earnings
performance of a US company that sells building materials.
Recording treatment arms:
Within each topic, we randomize two key features of the original recordings:
Level of variable: 50% receive a recording arguing for higher than expected earnings and
50% receive a recording arguing for lower than expected earnings.
Uncertainty of message: Second, we independently randomize the uncertainty of the original
message. 50% of respondents receive a “high uncertainty” recording, while 50% receive a
“öpw uncertainty" recording.
Randomization is stratified: each transmitter hears two recordings, one with “higher than
expected earnings” and one with a “lower than expected earnings,” one with “high
uncertainty” and one with “low uncertainty”.
Respondents receive incentives for transmitting all information contained in the original
messages. One out of 100 participants is randomly matched to a respondent in a separate
survey who allocates $100 across three assets that pay off depending on whether a
company’s performance is higher than expected, lower than expected, or exactly as
expected. After the company’s performance is realized, the amount invested in the asset
associated with the realized state is doubled and paid out. If the matched respondent’s
decision is selected, both the investor and the original participant who provided the voice
recording receive the resulting payoff. The matched respondent bases their decision solely
on their matched transmitter’s voice recording (if their matched transmitter chose to record
one), so the transmitter’s incentive is to provide information that enables the most profitable
investment choice.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
300 individuals
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
300 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
300 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
See analysis plan for details.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard University-Area Committee on the Use of Human Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2023-03-27
IRB Approval Number
IRB23-0080
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Endogenous Transmission

MD5: 2e5abbf74663d6fb01ef2adce7495704

SHA1: e350fc3fe06548fc6aba7d5d351f447aa441d4db

Uploaded At: December 22, 2025

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