Kinship Taxation and Firm Growth: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Last registered on November 20, 2019

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Kinship Taxation and Firm Growth: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005031
Initial registration date
November 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
November 20, 2019, 2:59 PM EST

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
UBC Economics

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2019-06-14
End date
2020-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study documents whether pressure to share income with relatives (kinship taxation) discourages investment for Tanzanian entrepreneurs.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Squires, Munir. 2019. "Kinship Taxation and Firm Growth: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania." AEA RCT Registry. November 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5031-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Providing cash transfers to individual micro-enterprise owners. Transfers are equivalent to USD 80, sent by mobile money, as a one-time payment.
Intervention Start Date
2019-10-08
Intervention End Date
2020-04-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Primary outcomes are changes in capital stock and monthly profits, interacted with whether the entrepreneur faces kinship taxation. That is, the key outcome is the difference in firm capital and profits for firms with owners who face kinship taxation and those who do not. These outcomes will be reported separately for men and women.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Outcomes are measured using a slightly modified version of the "AAA light" survey questionnaire in Anderson, Lazicky & Zia (2019). Whether an entrepreneur faces kinship taxation is measured through an incentivized survey question at baseline. Specifically, participants choose between the possibility of receiving 22 USD and having three of their relatives be informed of what they received or receiving 13 USD without informing the relatives.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Capital stock separated into fixed capital and working capital. Number of employees. Hours worked. Firm survival.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Working capital is the sum of stock/inventory and materials. Fixed capital is the sum of the resale value of machines, tools, IT equipment, furniture and electronics. All questions for these outcomes are taken from the AAA survey questionnaire in Anderson, Lazicky & Zia (2019).

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Participants are individually randomized into treatment or control. Randomization is stratified by the following three characteristics: (1) gender, (2) kinship taxation, and (3) pre-treatment profits.

Where
(1) is simply male/female,
(2) is whether the owner is willing to pay to hide income, and
(3) is the quintile of the pre-treatment distribution of profits, of which there are two measures (baseline and the first follow-up, which was done pre-treatment).
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Done in office by computer (in Stata)
Randomization Unit
Individual business owners.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
600 business owners
Sample size: planned number of observations
600 business owners
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
200 treatment, 400 control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
UBC Behavioral Research Ethics Board
IRB Approval Date
2019-06-27
IRB Approval Number
H19-00457

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