Perceptions of Economic Inequalities among German Adolescents and Adults (representative Surveys)

Last registered on September 21, 2026

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Perceptions of Economic Inequalities among German Adolescents and Adults (representative Surveys)

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0019735

Initial registration date

September 15, 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

September 21, 2026, 9:35 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Germany

Region

Representative survey

Primary Investigator

Name

Jan Schulz-Gebhard

Affiliation

Economics Institute, University of Bamberg

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Daniel Mayerhoffer

PI Affiliation

University of Amsterdam

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Hannah Olbrich

PI Affiliation

IMK Düsseldorf

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Marie Hartmann

PI Affiliation

University of Bamberg

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Margitta Grötsch

PI Affiliation

University of Bayreuth

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2026-05-28

End date

2026-09-15

Keywords

Gender

Additional Keywords

income perceptions, occupational titles, grammatical gender, linguistic framing, gender pay gaps

JEL code(s)

J16, J31, D83

Secondary IDs

OSF: b7vrf

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

This study examines whether the grammatical gender of occupational titles affects perceived earnings. We conducted two representative online surveys of adults and adolescents in Germany. The adult sample consists of 1,575 respondents aged 18–75, and the adolescent sample consists of 1,629 respondents aged 14–17. Respondents were randomly assigned at the individual level to a masculine-title or feminine-title condition and subsequently estimated the earnings associated with five occupations. The occupations comprise a physician, the head of a large company, a supermarket salesperson, an unskilled factory worker, and a member of the German Bundestag. Treatment assignment was approximately balanced between the two conditions. The primary outcome is respondents' reported earnings estimates. The experiment tests whether otherwise equivalent occupations are assigned different earnings depending solely on whether they are presented using a masculine or feminine occupational title.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Grötsch, Margitta et al. 2026. "Perceptions of Economic Inequalities among German Adolescents and Adults (representative Surveys)." AEA RCT Registry. September 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.19735-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Partner

Name

SINUS Institut

Type

private_company

URL

https://www.sinus-institut.de/

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Respondents were randomly assigned at the individual level to one of two survey conditions. In one condition, five occupations were presented using masculine German occupational titles; in the other condition, the same occupations were presented using feminine occupational titles. All other wording and the earnings questions were held constant. Respondents were asked to estimate the typical monthly gross earnings associated with each occupation.

Intervention (Hidden)

Intervention Start Date

2026-05-28

Intervention End Date

2026-06-10

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Respondents' estimates of typical monthly gross earnings for five occupations.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

The outcomes are monetary estimates of monthly gross earnings in euros. The preregistered experimental contrast compares earnings estimates between respondents assigned to masculine occupational titles and respondents assigned to feminine occupational titles. Analyses are conducted separately for the adult and adolescent samples. In the main analysis, cleaned positive monetary estimates are logarithmically transformed and analysed in a stacked respondent-by-occupation specification with occupation fixed effects and standard errors clustered by respondent.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

None. The experiment has one outcome family: respondents' estimates of typical monthly gross earnings for the five occupations. Occupation-specific effects and heterogeneity analyses use the same outcome and are treated as secondary analyses rather than separate endpoints.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary analyses examine heterogeneity in the treatment effect across occupations and respondent characteristics, particularly respondent gender. Further secondary analyses compare occupation-specific experimental treatment effects with external benchmarks for observed male-female earnings differences. These analyses use the same earnings outcome as the primary analysis and were not separately preregistered as primary hypotheses.

Experimental Design

The experiment was embedded in two standardised online surveys of adults and adolescents in Germany. Respondents were randomly assigned at the individual level, with approximately equal probability, to one of two conditions. In the masculine-title condition, all five occupations were presented using masculine German occupational titles; in the feminine-title condition, the same occupations were presented using feminine titles. The five occupations were physician, head of a large company, supermarket salesperson, unskilled factory worker, and member of the German Bundestag. Apart from the grammatical gender of the occupational title, question wording was held constant across conditions. Respondents estimated the typical monthly gross earnings associated with each occupation. Each respondent remained in the same title condition across all five occupations. Randomisation was not clustered.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Computerized individual-level random assignment within the online survey to one of two conditions: masculine occupational titles or feminine occupational titles, with approximately equal assignment probabilities.

Randomization Unit

Individual respondent.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

No cluster randomization. This AEA registration is retrospective; the realised trial included 3,204 individual randomization units (1,575 adults and 1,629 adolescents).

Sample size: planned number of observations

This AEA registration is retrospective. The realised sample included 3,204 respondents: 1,575 adults and 1,629 adolescents.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Adult sample: 788 masculine-title condition, 787 feminine-title condition.
Adolescent sample: 813 masculine-title condition, 816 feminine-title condition.
Total: 1,601 masculine-title condition, 1,603 feminine-title condition.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

No separate ex ante minimum detectable effect calculation was conducted for this embedded survey experiment.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB