Experiments to facilitate charitable giving and understand customer behavior

Last registered on November 20, 2019
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Experiments to facilitate charitable giving and understand customer behavior
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005001
Initial registration date
November 19, 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
November 20, 2019, 3:02 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Henrike Steimer
Affiliation
Stanford University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Dean Karlan
PI Affiliation
Northwestern University
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PI Name
Susan Athey
PI Affiliation
Stanford University
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2019-11-07
End date
2021-02-28
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
charitable decision making, donor behavior, impact information
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study examines how the display of charities and impact-related information affects consumers’ donation behavior following being offered the opportunity to add a donation to charity when checking out from an online shopping website.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Athey, Susan, Dean Karlan and Henrike Steimer. 2019. "Experiments to facilitate charitable giving and understand customer behavior." AEA RCT Registry. November 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5001-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This study examines how the display of charities and impact-related information affects consumers’ donation behavior following being offered the opportunity to add a donation to charity when checking out from an online shopping website.
Intervention Start Date
2019-11-19
Intervention End Date
2021-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
At the user-level:
1. Whether or not a user donates to charity
2. Total and average donation amounts per user over entire time period
3. Number of charities donated to over entire time period
4. Proportion of total donations to charities with impact info

At the user-session level:
5. Whether or not a user donates to charity
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This study examines how the display of charities and impact-related information affects consumers’ donation behavior following being offered the opportunity to add a donation to charity when checking out from an online shopping website.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Online A/B test. Customers using the payment services will be randomized into one of several conditions using the collaborator's system.
Randomization Unit
customer
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1
Sample size: planned number of observations
We estimate approximately 50,000,000 users.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We will include all users who use the collaborator’s services between the set dates.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Our intended sample size is approximately 50,000,000 user-sessions total. Based on power analyses, we estimate that this is adequate to detect a 0.1 percentage points difference in engagement between the major treatment groups.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Stanford University, Penelope D Eckert, Ph.D., Administrative Panel on Human Subjects in Non-Medical Research
IRB Approval Date
2019-10-25
IRB Approval Number
49537
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