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The Political Economy and Governance of Rural Electrification in Kenya

Last registered on May 30, 2018

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.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of California at Berkeley
PI Affiliation
University of California at Berkeley
PI Affiliation
University of California at Berkeley

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2017-01-01
End date
2019-12-31
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. 2018. "The Political Economy and Governance of Rural Electrification in Kenya." AEA RCT Registry. May 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.2389-1.0
Former Citation
Berkouwer, Susanna et al. 2018. "The Political Economy and Governance of Rural Electrification in Kenya." AEA RCT Registry. May 30. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/2389/history/30155
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 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)
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

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials