Experimental Design
Our design combines a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a discrete choice experiment (DCE). First, the survey starts with a screening question: “Do you have investments in stocks or in funds?”. Only participants who have such investments proceed to the main survey. We aim for sample size of approximately 2000 participants.
The survey starts with an intervention that closely follows the intervention conducted by Andre et al. (2024). First, the beliefs regarding three statements are elicited from all participants (see Intervention section for a detailed description of these statements). Participants are then randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups (T1, T2, T3) or to a control group. Groups T1 through T3 receive information regarding how respondents answered in a previous survey conducted in March 2025. The survey had 2,001 respondents and the sample was representative by age, gender, and regions. Each group receives information on slightly different statements, while the control group receives no information.
Following the intervention, we conduct the DCE to estimate the choice probabilities. For the DCE we use blocked D(B)-efficient design consisting of three blocks. Participants in each treatment group are randomly assigned to one of these three blocks. Specifically, one-third (~166 participants) of each group is allocated to Block 1, one-third to Block 2, and one-third to Block 3. Participants face eight (8) hypothetical choice situations in which they choose their most preferred fund from three alternatives. Each alternative is characterized by several attributes (past return, management fee, risk, and fund’s focus). Because the choice tasks differ across blocks, there are 24 distinct choice situations in total.
After the DCE we present the belief elicitation question again to check the effectiveness of the intervention. For example, for participants in T1 we ask their beliefs regarding statement 1 (see Intervention section). Finally, we will conduct a post-experiment survey where we collect additional demographic and background information.
Andre, P., Boneva, T., Chopra, F., & Falk, A. (2024). Misperceived social norms and willingness to act against climate change. Review of Economics and Statistics, 1-46.