Information Kid – Effects of Information Provision and Application Assistance on Childcare Participation and Life Outcomes

Last registered on March 04, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information Kid – Effects of Information Provision and Application Assistance on Childcare Participation and Life Outcomes
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0003181
Initial registration date
July 27, 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
August 01, 2018, 2:02 AM EDT

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

Last updated
March 04, 2022, 8:21 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Germany
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Philipp Lergetporer
Affiliation
Technical University of Munich
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Henning Müller
PI Affiliation
Norwegian School of Economics
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PI Name
Frauke Peter
PI Affiliation
DIW Berlin
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PI Name
Simon Wiederhold
PI Affiliation
KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2018-08-06
End date
2021-10-31
Keywords
Education
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
In the past two decades, early childcare has become an essential tool to support child development and to increase employment opportunities of parents in many European countries. However, children from disadvantaged families tend to start childcare at later age, although – according to well-identified economic studies – these children would benefit more from enrollment into childcare than their peers from more advan-taged backgrounds. Lack of information about both the availability of childcare facili-ties and financial support for taking up childcare as well as difficulties to navigate through the application process have been put forward as likely explanations for lower childcare usage among disadvantaged families. In this project, we conduct a random-ized controlled trial (RCT) in Germany to investigate how alleviating these barriers affects participation in early childcare (“Krippe”). To this end, we offer a randomly selected group of parents practical and legal childcare-related information as well as assistance in the application process for a childcare slot. We conduct the RCT in two cities with a high share of parents from disadvantaged backgrounds (i.e., parents with migration background or single parents). We also specifically target first-time parents. We aim at answering whether our treatment (1) affects parents’ application intentions and behavior, and (2) increases childcare enrollment. If our treatment increases child-care enrollment, we (3) also plan to investigate the effects of childcare participation on child development and parental labor-market participation. Given our conservative cost calculations, we envisage a sample size of 600 parents with children aged one to two years (at the start of the childcare year). In case the field work is less costly than planned, we will continue sampling up to 800 parents.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lergetporer, Philipp et al. 2022. "Information Kid – Effects of Information Provision and Application Assistance on Childcare Participation and Life Outcomes." AEA RCT Registry. March 04. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.3181-2.2
Former Citation
Lergetporer, Philipp et al. 2022. "Information Kid – Effects of Information Provision and Application Assistance on Childcare Participation and Life Outcomes." AEA RCT Registry. March 04. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3181/history/138157
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Our RCT investigates the effects of providing parents with childcare-related infor-mation and assistance in the application for a childcare slot on (i) parents’ intentions to apply for a childcare slot and application behavior, (ii) actual enrollment into child-care, and (iii) child development and parental labor-market involvement (provided that childcare enrollment increases).
Intervention (Hidden)
In the following, we first describe our general setting, and then provide details about the data collection and intervention.

General procedure
The intervention will be implemented in the cities of Kaiserslautern and Ludwigshafen (Rhineland-Palatine, Germany) from August 2018 onwards. Both municipalities pro-vided us with register data to identify parents of recently born children. Specifically, our study focuses on children aged one to two years in the beginning of the preschool year 2019/2020 (i.e., in fall 2019). (In Germany, children from age one onward enjoy a legal right to a childcare slot.) We implement a stratified randomization procedure in which parents are randomly assigned to treatment group or control group within blocks (defined by basic characteristics such as child’s age or single-parent status).

Data collection and intervention

First wave of data collection and intervention
In August 2018, our interviewers will visit (control-group and treatment-group) parents at their homes to conduct an incentivized baseline survey with them. While the inter-view ends after survey completion for the control group, the treatment group will addi-tionally be provided practical information about childcare (e.g., legal right to a child-care slot, costs of a childcare slot, application process for childcare, etc.). Treated par-ents will also be offered assistance to navigate through the application process for a childcare slot. The assistance includes, for instance, help in the completion of the childcare application, exploring the possibility of applying for government financial aid for childcare (and support in the application therefor), as well as sending reminders of deadlines.

Second wave of data collection
In June 2019, we will re-survey parents. The planned survey mode is CATI (computer-assisted telephone interview). The survey will be similar to the baseline survey, but a particular focus will be set on parents’ application intentions and behavior.

Third wave of data collection
In the beginning of 2020, we will re-survey parents. The planned survey mode is CATI (computer-assisted telephone interview). The survey will be similar to the preceding surveys, but a particular focus will be set on childcare take-up. The information col-lected in waves two and three are our primary outcome variables of interest.

Further waves of data collection
Conditional on a positive effect of the intervention on child-care take-up, we plan to field further waves of data collection from fall 2020 onwards. In these waves, we will focus on the effects of children’s childcare participation on parents’ labor market par-ticipation and child development. These will be our further outcome variables of inter-est (which will be collected only if there is a significant effect of our treatment on childcare take-up).
Intervention Start Date
2018-08-06
Intervention End Date
2019-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1) Parental application intentions and behavior for a childcare slot (e.g., number of applications, number of visits at open house presentations).

2) Childcare take-up.

3) (Contingent on a significant “first stage”): Parental labor-market participation.

4) (Contingent on a significant “first stage”): Child development.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Parent’s beliefs about childcare (availability, costs, eligibility).

Heterogeneity analysis by (i) parental socioeconomic status, (ii) prior childcare enrollment intention, (iii) admission prioritization criteria.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We conduct a randomized field experiment in which participants are randomly as-signed to treatment or control within strata (also see “Intervention”). We plan to sam-ple a minimum of 600 parents (up to a maximum of 800 if permitted by the actual cost of field work; also see “Experiment characteristics”).
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
- Stratified randomization
- Randomization done with computer in office
Randomization Unit
Individual randomization (parent-child pair level)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
600 parent-child pairs (300 in control group; 300 in treatment group); (maximum: 800, conditional on cost of field work)
Sample size: planned number of observations
600 parents-child pairs (300 in control group; 300 in treatment group); (maximum: 800, conditional on cost of field work)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
There will two experimental groups:
Control group: 300 individual, independent observations
Treatment group: 300 individual, independent observations
According to our conservative cost calculations, we have sufficient funding for sam-pling 600 parents. In case that the field work is less costly than planned, we envisage to continue sampling up to a maximum number of 800 parents.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Joint Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of Goethe University Frankfurt and the Gutenberg School of Management & Economics of the Faculty of Law, Management and Economics of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
IRB Approval Date
2017-09-04
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Analysis Plan

MD5: 3361b8c52876f6fc4f72cb788680bad0

SHA1: 743117cf7f5cdfaef9e29936ea3579a45680b358

Uploaded At: May 06, 2019

Analysis Plan - Update

MD5: 9e35e2e02c4d7f2c96b216622a6d7e91

SHA1: 14643a035f85b766e721f7977e9dc46ffcefbad2

Uploaded At: January 28, 2020

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