Wage information and preference for potential partner’s fertility intentions

Last registered on March 05, 2026
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Wage information and preference for potential partner’s fertility intentions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0017814
Initial registration date
February 26, 2026

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
March 05, 2026, 6:44 AM EST

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
Haoran He
Affiliation
Beijing Normal University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Dan Wang
PI Affiliation
Beijing Normal University
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PI Name
Qian Weng
PI Affiliation
Renmin University of China
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-02-05
End date
2027-02-05
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Wage information, preference for potential partner’s fertility intentions, field experiment, marriage market
JEL code(s)
C93, J12, J13
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We conduct an incentivized field experiment in the marriage market to estimate preference for potential partner’s fertility intentions, and we further impose a randomized intervention that provides factual information about Chinese couple’s hourly wage changes following the birth of a first child to examine how this information affects preferences for potential partner’s fertility intentions.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
He, Haoran, Dan Wang and Qian Weng. 2026. "Wage information and preference for potential partner’s fertility intentions." AEA RCT Registry. March 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.17814-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
n/a
Intervention Start Date
2026-02-05
Intervention End Date
2027-02-05

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
- Rating: How interested a participant is in a potential partner profile assuming the partner is interested in initiating contact and meeting with the participant, from worse than staying single to extremely ideal.
- Implied outcome of interest: Willingness to pay (WTP) for fertility intentions of the potential partner. Based on a reduced-form estimation of a linear model of rating against partner attributes, we can estimate WTP for potential partner’s fertility intentions by the ratio of estimated coefficient on potential partner’s fertility intentions over that on income.
- Posterior beliefs: Beliefs about hourly wage /annual after-tax wage income changes for the participant’s couple after the information intervention.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
n/a

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
n/a
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
n/a

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We conduct an incentivized field experiment in the marriage market to estimate preference for potential partner’s fertility intentions under a randomized intervention that provides factual information about Chinese couple’s hourly wage changes following the birth of a first child.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
We made a stratified randomization based on participants’ gender.
Randomization Unit: The unit of randomization is at the participant level.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization is at the participant level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
n/a
Sample size: planned number of observations
1000 participants (subject to change due to unpredictable sample attrition)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Control group: about 667 participants;
Treatment group: about 333 participants
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
n/a
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Business School of Beijing Normal University
IRB Approval Date
2026-02-03
IRB Approval Number
BNU-BS-IRB 2026-017
Analysis Plan

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