Beliefs about Pay

Last registered on April 06, 2026
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Beliefs about Pay
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0018278
Initial registration date
April 02, 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
April 06, 2026, 8:13 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
Hannah Solheim
Affiliation
Columbia University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Nancy Wang
PI Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2026-04-03
End date
2028-06-01
Keywords
Labor
Additional Keywords
Social media
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In this project, we study beliefs about pay.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Solheim, Hannah and Nancy Wang. 2026. "Beliefs about Pay." AEA RCT Registry. April 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.18278-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2026-04-03
Intervention End Date
2028-06-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Primary outcomes include beliefs about compensation
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
There will be one treatment arm and two control arms.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done by Qualtrics
Randomization Unit
Brand deal
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
50 participants with firm-side experience
50 participants with worker-side experience
Sample size: planned number of observations
450 observations on the firm-side 150 observations on the worker-side
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Firm-Side: We plan to randomize at the brand deal level. Each participant with firm-side experience will see 9 brand deals. One third will be passive control, one third with be active control, and one third will be treatment. We plan to recruit 50 participants with firm-side experience.

Worker-Side: Each participant with worker-side experience will see 3 brand deals.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Firm-Side: We measure each participant's prediction error (predicted minus true compensation), standardized so effects are in SD units. We average each participant's 3 errors within each condition, yielding one observation per person per condition, and test for a difference in means between treatment and passive control via a paired t-test. With 50 participants, ICC = 0.3, 80% power, and α = 0.05, the MDE is 0.27 SD.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Columbia University
IRB Approval Date
2026-03-25
IRB Approval Number
ACYY1758
Analysis Plan