Behavioral Effects of Priming Aid Dependence

Last registered on February 21, 2017

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Behavioral Effects of Priming Aid Dependence

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0002026

Initial registration date

February 21, 2017

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

February 21, 2017, 2:35 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

Kenya

Region

Nairobi

Primary Investigator

Name

Johannes Haushofer

Affiliation

Stockholm University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

Completed

Start date

2015-03-02

End date

2015-05-08

Keywords

Governance

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

While economists, policymakers, and other researchers have studied the effects of foreign aid on government processes and macroeconomic variables, few have explored the individual-level psychological effects of living in a country that is heavily dependent on foreign assistance. In this study, we randomly assigned residents of informal settlements in Kenya to one of three priming treatments in a laboratory setting. The treatments either primed the belief that Kenya is dependent on foreign aid, that Kenya is self-sufficient, or neither belief. The primes consisted of a screensavers, a short video presentation, and a writing task. After the primes, we measured their effects on honesty, effort provision, and a number of psychological variables. This document outlines the econometric methods we will use to assess the effect of the primes on these outcome variables.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Haushofer, Johannes. 2017. "Behavioral Effects of Priming Aid Dependence." AEA RCT Registry. February 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2026-1.0

Former Citation

Haushofer, Johannes. 2017. "Behavioral Effects of Priming Aid Dependence." AEA RCT Registry. February 21. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2026/history/14245

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Each participant was randomized into one of three conditions: aid dependency, self-sufficiency, or control. In each of these conditions, participants were exposed to a prime consisting of three components: computer screensaver images, short video presentations, and a writing task in which participants are asked to summarize the main point of the videos.
In the aid dependency condition, the prime consisted of the following components. First, as the experimenter read aloud instructions for the session, participants were shown the logos of thirteen different aid organizations on their screens as a screensaver. The organizations included both in- ternational and national NGOs, and all images were vetted for familiarity before the study. Later in the study, the screensaver was re-administered for 30 seconds to refresh their priming effect (see below for order of tasks).

Intervention Start Date

2015-03-02

Intervention End Date

2015-05-08

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Effort provision, honesty, self-esteem, internal locus of control

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The study was conducted at the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics (Busara) in Nairobi, Kenya, a facility specially designed for experimental economics and psychology studies. Busara maintains an active participant pool of more than 12,000 Nairobi residents. For the present study, 449 participants who had previously signed up to be part of the Busara participant pool were recruited from Kawangware and Kibera, two informal settlements in Nairobi. Participants were recruited using phone calls. In the recruitment phone call, participants were told that they were invited to participate in a study being conducted by behavioral economics researchers. They were informed that they would be paid KES 300 for their participation and have the opportunity to earn more during the study. To minimize demand effects, they were also told clearly that no government or outside organization was sponsoring the study.
The sample included both males and female university students over eighteen years of age. Partic- ipants had previously been vetted to ensure that they were able to comprehend both written and spoken English and Swahili.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Computer

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

467

Sample size: planned number of observations

467

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Each of the 467 participants was randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions , resulting in 162 participants in the aid dependency condition, 153 in the self-sufficiency condition, and 152 in the control condition.

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

A power analysis shows that these numbers result in 93.6% power to detect a treatment effect of 0.4 standard deviations, and have 80% power to detect 0.322 SD effects.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB