Unpacking Intergenerational Immobility: Career Choices and the Role of Parents

Last registered on September 16, 2019

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Unpacking Intergenerational Immobility: Career Choices and the Role of Parents

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0004654

Initial registration date

September 16, 2019

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 16, 2019, 1:54 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Germany

Region

North Rhine-Westphalia

Primary Investigator

Name

Maximilian Müller

Affiliation

Toulouse School of Economics

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2019-09-27

End date

2022-12-31

Keywords

Education, Labor

Additional Keywords

Behavioral, Psychology, Sociology, Family

JEL code(s)

I24 - Education and Inequality, J62 - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility, D91 - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

Secondary IDs

Abstract

How do students and their parents prepare career choices after high school, i.e. whether to study or to do vocational training for example? For this purpose, I visit schools and invite students and their parents to participate in a study on the question of how to plan for the time after high school.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Müller, Maximilian. 2019. "Unpacking Intergenerational Immobility: Career Choices and the Role of Parents." AEA RCT Registry. September 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4654-1.0

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

No intervention planned.

Intervention Start Date

2019-09-27

Intervention End Date

2020-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

- Aspirations (whether to study, strength of preference, valuation of fields/preferred fields or occupations, maximum willingness to move)
- Potential Disagreement (perceived disagreement with respect to aspirations)
- Actual Decisions (following aspirations above, such as whether studying or not, which subject/occupation chosen, distance from home)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Potential Disagreement will be constructed by combining students' own aspirations and their perceptions of what their parents desire. E.g. when a student aspires to pursue undergraduate studies but thinks their parents desire him/her to do vocational training, this would be coded as perceived disagreement. Similarly, disagreement when it comes to distance (in total kilometers or deviation by 50, 100, 200km or more), subjects (top ranked fields of study/ occupational fields) can be constructed

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

- Disagreement (actual)
- Accuracy of parental beliefs (of whether child desires to study)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Actual disagreement is constructed as described above for perceived disagreement, with the only difference being that students' perceptions are substituted by parents' actual stated aspirations (the problem is that for this purpose, parents actually need to participate).

Experimental Design

Students are visited in school. Both parents and students are asked to participate and answer survey questions.

Experimental Design Details

I experimentally vary the visibility of students’ stated aspirations to parents, which allows me to analyze parental influence in a simple experimental framework, using data from survey round 1 only. Before students fill out the questionnaire on their career aspirations, they receive one of two instructions at random: in the private condition, they are told that their answers won't be shared with anyone, while in the public condition, they are instructed that their answers won't be shared with anyone but their parents. What is the causal impact of making stated aspirations visible to parents in this context? Does the share of students increase that state a desire to study?

Randomization Method

Randomization done in office by a computer

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A

Sample size: planned number of observations

Between 1,500 and 2,000 students will be approached for participation at ca. 10 schools and 15 or more cohorts (grades), the eventual number of participating students will probably be between 1,000 and 1,200 students. Up to 750 students should have at least one parent participating.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

375 each.

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

- Outcomes measured in percentages/ shares (such as share desiring to study): 10 percentage points (assuming control group share of 50%) - Outcomes measured on 0 to 100 scale (such as strength of preference for studying, valuation of subjects): 4.3 points [based on sd of 21 in pilot. When assuming sd of 35 MDE increases to 7.2] - Continuous outcomes such as maximum willingness to move: ca. 53 kilometers [based on standard deviation of 260]

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB