Smart Data: Can Visualized Administrative Data Help Inform and Hold Public Stakeholders Accountable?

Last registered on December 30, 2016
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Smart Data: Can Visualized Administrative Data Help Inform and Hold Public Stakeholders Accountable?
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000481
Initial registration date
December 23, 2014

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
December 23, 2014, 10:20 PM EST

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

Last updated
December 30, 2016, 2:29 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
India
Region
Bihar

Primary Investigator

Name
Charity Moore
Affiliation
Yale University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Rohini Pande
PI Affiliation
Harvard University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Eric Dodge
PI Affiliation
Harvard University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2014-10-01
End date
2016-12-31
Keywords
Governance
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
D3, I3, Y1
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The Smart Data project examines how providing administrators with visualized administrative data affects their beliefs regarding their locality’s implementation of MGNREGA, India’s large-scale public works program, and whether receiving visualized versions of administrative data affects administrators’ data appetite and usage.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Dodge, Eric, Charity Moore and Rohini Pande. 2016. "Smart Data: Can Visualized Administrative Data Help Inform and Hold Public Stakeholders Accountable?." AEA RCT Registry. December 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.481-3.0
Former Citation
Dodge, Eric, Charity Moore and Rohini Pande. 2016. "Smart Data: Can Visualized Administrative Data Help Inform and Hold Public Stakeholders Accountable?." AEA RCT Registry. December 30. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/481/history/12882
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We will distribute visualized versions of district ranking report cards to one half of relevant district and block administrators overseeing the Indian state of Bihar's public works program (NREGA). Officials working in control areas will receive non-visualized versions of the information.
Intervention Start Date
2016-01-15
Intervention End Date
2016-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
We will study the role of dashboard provision on officials' beliefs about their performance in the program (relative ranking to comparator groups and how this ranking has evolved over time) and their management practices (how frequently and by what means they follow-up with implementation problems).
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study is a randomized control trial that randomizes receipt of MGNREGA ranking dashboards at the district level. The state’s 38 districts will be stratified based on agroclimatic zones (Northern West, Northern East, Southern East, and Southern West), followed by pair matching within stratum based on districts’ average previous ranking for available months (June 2013 – February 2014).
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization in office by a computer.
Randomization Unit
District
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
38 districts
Sample size: planned number of observations
Approximately 550 respondents
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approximately 250 officials, spread across 19 districts, will belong to each treatment arm. Respondents will be interviewed at baseline, endline, and at least once during the intervention. (Contact with respondents will be randomly varied.)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard Human Research Protection Program
IRB Approval Date
2014-07-29
IRB Approval Number
IRB14-2545
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