Making the Most of Limited Government Capacity

Last registered on January 02, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Making the Most of Limited Government Capacity
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0004802
Initial registration date
October 06, 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
October 07, 2019, 9:33 AM EDT

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

Last updated
January 02, 2022, 1:31 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region
New York

Primary Investigator

Name
Samuel Kapon
Affiliation
New York University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Lucia Del Carpio
PI Affiliation
INSEAD
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Sylvain Chassang
PI Affiliation
Princeton
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2019-10-07
End date
2021-10-12
Keywords
Governance
Additional Keywords
taxes, mechanism design, enforcement, capabilities
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We study how mechanisms that seek to make an optimal use of limited government capacity perform in realistic settings, in which participants need not play according to equilibrium. Our motivating example is that of a tax authority with only limited capacity to perform audits ahead of collection.

The experiment will offer players the opportunity to settle a debt that they owe to a collection authority. The treatments of the experiment will vary the method of collection, settlement offers and information provided to participants about the settlement decisions of others.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Chassang, Sylvain, Lucia Del Carpio and Samuel Kapon. 2022. "Making the Most of Limited Government Capacity." AEA RCT Registry. January 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4802-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We vary the method of collection, the information that players receive about others, and discounts for settling early.
Intervention Start Date
2019-10-07
Intervention End Date
2021-10-12

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The outcomes we are interested in are total amount collected, total number of settlers and the speed of settlement.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
-Sessions run in NYU CESS, with each subject playing all treatments randomly ordered.
-Sessions run on Amazon Mechanical Turk with groups of 10 workers, each only playing one session.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by computer.
Randomization Unit
Session level - each group will be randomly assigned one treatment.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
12 sessions in NYU CESS (each session corresponding to three treatments)
~40 Sessions on MTurk (each session corresponding to 2, 3 or 4 treatments)

Sample size: planned number of observations
~300 individuals in NYU CESS ~1250 individuals on Amazon Mechanical Turk
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Each player in the NYU session plays all 3 treatments, randomly ordered.
On MTurk, each player plays just 1 treatment
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
Theory, Design and Instructions
Document Type
other
Document Description
This document includes the main theoretical predictions, experimental design and a sample of instructions.
File
Theory, Design and Instructions

MD5: 2cd3f8d36264c0bfde774b50fbe2da45

SHA1: 63dae05a36041774025dfd230950dfe7eeb6ffef

Uploaded At: September 30, 2019

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University Committee on Activities Involving Human Subjects
IRB Approval Date
2019-10-19
IRB Approval Number
FY-IRB# 2016-1401
IRB Name
Princeton University Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2021-08-11
IRB Approval Number
IRB 13998
Analysis Plan

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