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Information Preferences and the Short and Long Run Effects of Information

Last registered on November 12, 2019

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information Preferences and the Short and Long Run Effects of Information
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005015
Initial registration date
November 10, 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 12, 2019, 11:46 AM EST

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

Last updated
November 12, 2019, 12:14 PM EST

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Universtiy of Innsbruck

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Mannheim

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2019-11-11
End date
2020-05-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In this project, we investigate how information on industrial livestock farming affects meat consumption in the short and long run. We estimate the demand for information and analyze how the effect of information varies with information preferences.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Epperson, Raphael and Andreas Gerster. 2019. "Information Preferences and the Short and Long Run Effects of Information ." AEA RCT Registry. November 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5015-1.1
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Based on an encouragement design, individuals receive (or do not receive) information on industrial livestock farming.
Intervention Start Date
2019-11-11
Intervention End Date
2020-05-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Short run:
Binary outcome of whether an individual chooses a voucher for a non-vegetarian (instead of a vegetarian) meal.

Long run:
Binary outcome of whether an individual eats meat when purchasing a meal in one of the canteens during the observed time period after the laboratory experiment. (The number of observations per individual depends on the number of purchases made.)

Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Long run:
We code a meal as containing meat based on the weekly food plans. In cases where our data is insufficient to determine exactly whether a meal contained meat (e.g. the salad bar), we code it as containing meat if meals in that category typically do.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our research design builds on three central elements: (i) the elicitation of the willingness-to-pay (WTP) for information on industrial livestock farming, (ii) variation in the treatment of receiving this information, and (iii) the observation of the subjects’ meal choices (in particular their meat consumption) in the short and long run.We investigate short run effects based on a laboratory experiment. In addition, we can analyze long run effects due to supplementary field data.
Experimental Design Details
In our laboratory experiment, participants have the opportunity to receive information in the form of a 360° video on living conditions of pigs in industrial livestock farming. We elicit the demand for information by asking people to decide between two options: (i) watching a 360° video about industrial livestock farming of pigs or (ii) watching a virtual reality tour through the office building of the "Deutsche Bundesbank" (German Central Bank), which they have already watched before. Subjects face eleven choice tasks which differ in the extent to which one of the two videos is incentivized (we randomize which video is denoted as option A). The implied prices of information are -8, -5, -3, -1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 8 EUR. One decision is randomly selected and implemented (the implied prices of -8 and 8 EUR are each selected with a probability of 27.5 percent, while all other decision are selected with a probability of 5 percent). With the wide range of prices we try to achieve that subjects do not prefer one video option over the other for all relative prices. As a result, all subjects have a positive probability of (not) receiving the information (which allows to estimate e.g. the average treatment effect of information by propensity score weighting).

In the last part of the laboratory experiment, subjects have the chance to win a voucher for the main canteen at the University of Mannheim (with 50 percent probability). They can choose which of two vouchers they would like to receive if they win (the order is randomized): a voucher for menu 1, which usually contains meat (or fish), or a voucher for the vegetarian menu. This decision is used to measure the short run effect of information. To give subjects a better idea of the options, we provide the exact meals that correspond to the vouchers for a sample week (21.10.19 – 25.10.19). Each voucher has a value of €3. Whether a subject wins or not is determined by a random draw (by the computer) and is independent from the lottery outcome of other subjects. At the end of the experiment, subjects are informed about the lottery outcome and their overall reward. The monetary reward from the experiment is not paid in cash but transferred onto the ecUM (electronic card Universität Mannheim). The ecUM serves as student card at the University of Mannheim and can be used to purchase products in the canteens or other products like the six-month student transit pass. Subjects need to activate the credit on their ecUM by visiting the information counter of the “Studierendenwerk Mannheim”, which is in the same building as the main canteen. The credit is available from Tuesday in the week after the experimental session onwards. Before leaving the laboratory, subjects receive an envelope that contains information on their credit and the corresponding voucher if they have won.

The experimental data is supplemented by data on meal purchases from each laboratory subject for the time period 01.08.2019 – 31.05.2020 in the canteens at the University of Mannheim. The data will be provided by the “Studierendenwerk Mannheim”. The purchases are made with the ecUM. As subjects provide their ecUM number during the experimental session, the purchases can be assigned to a particular subject. Although it is possible to pay in cash at the canteens, the student discount is conditional on paying with the ecUM and few transactions are actually made in cash. For a sample period from 01.10.2019 till 31.10.2019 less than two percent of the transactions in the main canteen were made in cash. We obtain informed consent of subjects to access their data prior to the experimental sessions. The data on meal purchases outside the laboratory is used to measure the long run effect of information.
Randomization Method
Randomization is done via oTree
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1,000 Individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
1,000 Individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Due to the encouragement design, the exact numbers are unclear. In our power calculations, we use the empirical WTP distribution from our pretest. See the attached pre-analysis plan for more details.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See the attached pre-analysis plan.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethics Committee at the University of Mannheim
IRB Approval Date
2019-10-15
IRB Approval Number
EK Mannheim 30/2019
Analysis Plan

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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