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The Political Economy and Governance of Rural Electrification in Kenya

Last registered on October 22, 2019
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Political Economy and Governance of Rural Electrification in Kenya
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0002389
Initial registration date
May 29, 2018

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
May 30, 2018, 9:50 PM EDT

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

Last updated
October 22, 2019, 4:19 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Kenya
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Susanna Berkouwer
Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Edward Miguel
PI Affiliation
University of California at Berkeley
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PI Name
Catherine Wolfram
PI Affiliation
University of California at Berkeley
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PI Name
Eric Hsu
PI Affiliation
University of California at Berkeley
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2017-01-01
End date
2019-12-31
Keywords
Electoral, Environment & Energy, Governance
Additional Keywords
Development
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Although governments in low-income countries frequently outsource public good provision to the private sector, the political economy and governance issues in this sphere remain poorly understood. We study outsourced public good provision by a low-capacity state in the context of Kenya’s national Last Mile Connectivity Project, which aims to provide universal household electricity access by 2020 using World Bank and African Development Bank funding. We will collect rich administrative and spatial planning data on the construction process across hundreds of projects. We will complement this with novel field engineering assessments and household surveys to study the channels affecting leakage and technical construction of a nationwide infrastructure project.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Berkouwer, Susanna et al. 2019. "The Political Economy and Governance of Rural Electrification in Kenya." AEA RCT Registry. October 22. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2389-5.0
Former Citation
Berkouwer, Susanna et al. 2019. "The Political Economy and Governance of Rural Electrification in Kenya." AEA RCT Registry. October 22. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2389/history/199692
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Enhanced Monitoring Program at a select number of sites in the 5 Kenyan counties of Kakamega, Kisumu, Kericho, Nandi, and Vihiga.
Intervention (Hidden)
We met with contractors in-person and provided them each with a letters stating that a specific list of their projects have been selected for an enhanced monitoring program. The letter for each contractor included the sites in the treatment group that had been allocated to that contractor.
Intervention Start Date
2017-09-01
Intervention End Date
2018-07-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Engineering measurements, household survey data, firm survey data, secondary/administrative data.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Individual contractors have been assigned to perform construction of the LMCP project in specific villages (called "transformer sites", located within a 600m radius of a transformer). Individual contractors will receive notification of an Enhanced Monitoring Program that will by conducted by an international team of engineers at a pre-specified list of their construction sites once construction is expected to have been completed.
Experimental Design Details
Our sampling frame is 573 AfDB and 528 World Bank funded transformer sites in the 5 Kenyan counties of Kakamega, Kisumu, Kericho, Nandi, and Vihiga. Of these, we randomly selected 309 AfDB sites and 322 World Bank site that would be included in our sample. From these sites, we allocated 155 AfDB sites into the control group and 154 AfDB into the treatment group, and we allocated 161 World Bank sites into the control and the treatment group each.

The 315 sites listed in the treatment group were being implemented by 5 unique contractors that had been won through 6 bidding lots, 3 under AfDB and 3 under World Bank (there was 1 contractor who won 2 bidding lots).
Randomization Method
Randomization was done using Stata software.
Randomization Unit
Transformer site.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
631 transformer sites.
Sample size: planned number of observations
Up to 10,000 households and firms located nearby each transformer.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
315 clusters in treatment, 316 clusters in control.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Committee for Protection of Human Subjects (CPHS) at UC Berkeley
IRB Approval Date
2018-05-22
IRB Approval Number
2016-11-9365
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-analysis Plan

MD5: cf7fe7b48a90de368f5dcdbff232db03

SHA1: e6e71c673789cd387a3c812b1db1a36c42a3a8f2

Uploaded At: February 28, 2019

Pre-analysis Plan - Appendix 1

MD5: 555fb71e9e0783b46dbf33704108415a

SHA1: 4620bcd3d62b1c4951f13f91c9854240238256e6

Uploaded At: February 28, 2019

Pre-analysis Plan - Appendix 3

MD5: 5dce06afd3bdfb2b87f0dbf5056c7c9b

SHA1: b849511dbe3dfd006dc1ae0d190201ea1213e62a

Uploaded At: February 28, 2019

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
January 01, 2019, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
July 01, 2022, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
"Donor Contracting Conditions and Public Procurement: Causal Evidence from Kenyan Electrification"
Citation
Wolfram, C., E. Miguel, E. Hsu, S. Berkouwer. 2023. “Donor contracting conditions and public procurement: Causal evidence from Kenyan electrification.” NBER Working Paper #30948.
URL
https://www.nber.org/papers/w30948

Reports & Other Materials