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China's effect on attitudes towards aid in New Zealand

Last registered on November 20, 2019
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
China's effect on attitudes towards aid in New Zealand
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005055
Initial registration date
November 18, 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, 2:57 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
New Zealand
Region
Pacific

Primary Investigator

Name
Terence Wood
Affiliation
The Australian National University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Christopher Hoy
PI Affiliation
The Australian National University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2019-11-26
End date
2020-11-01
Keywords
Governance
Additional Keywords
Aid, Public Opinion, Aid Policy
JEL code(s)
F35, C93, F52
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This survey experiment will study whether presenting a vignette on China’s rising aid presence in the Pacific changes views about aid policy in New Zealand (New Zealand is the second largest aid donor to the Pacific). Attitudes in the following areas will be tested: (a) attitudes on total New Zealand aid volume; (b) the Pacific focus of New Zealand's aid; and (c) the purpose of New Zealand's aid giving.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hoy, Christopher and Terence Wood. 2019. "China's effect on attitudes towards aid in New Zealand." AEA RCT Registry. November 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5055-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In addition to the control group, one information treatment will be provided to a randomly selected sub-set of participants in the survey experiment.

The treatment group will receive a factually-accurate vignette on China’s rise as an aid donor to the region, in which facts are accompanied by matter of fact commentary.
Intervention Start Date
2019-11-26
Intervention End Date
2019-12-09

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
There are three main outcomes of interest. These are:
1) Desire for level of New Zealand's aid spending to be changed.
2) What the purpose of New Zealand's aid should be (helping developing countries or advancing New Zealand’s interests).
3) Whether New Zealand's aid to the Pacific should increase as a share of New Zealand's total aid spending.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The effect of China’s increased aid presence in the Pacific on New Zealander’s views about aid will be evaluated via an online survey of a nationally representative (on age and gender) sample of the New Zealand population.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomisation was conducted using the survey firm’s software.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
1200
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
600
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Power calculations have been conducted to estimate the sample size required based upon the average effect size and treatment group size of similar studies on this topic (e.g. Hoy, Pryke & Wood (2019)). The minimum detectable effect size on the primary question of interest (Desire for level of aid spending to be changed) is around 8 percentage points (with power 0.8 and alpha 0.05) with a sample size of 600 individuals in each group.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
November 29, 2019, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
November 29, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
n/a
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
1147, Individual
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Control: 584 Treatment: 563
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
Yes
Public Data URL
https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/3VVWPL

Program Files

Program Files
Yes
Program Files URL
https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/3VVWPL
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
Abstract
China’s rise is ushering in a new era of geostrategic contestation involving foreign aid. In
many traditional OECD donors, aid policy is changing as a result. We report on a survey
experiment studying the impacts of rising Chinese aid on public opinion in traditional
donors. We randomly treated people with vignettes emphasising China’s rise as an aid
donor in the Pacific, a region of substantial geostrategic competition. We used a large,
nationally-representative sample of Australians (Australia is the largest donor to the
Pacific). As expected, treating participants reduced hostility to aid and increased support
for more aid focused on the Pacific. Counter to expectations, however, treatment reduced
support for using aid to advance Australian interests. These findings were largely replicated
in a separate experiment in New Zealand. Knowledge of Chinese competition changes support
for aid, but it does not increase support for using aid as a tool of geostrategy.
Citation
Wood, T., Hoy, C., & Pryke, J. (2020). The Effect of Geostrategic Competition on Public Attitudes to Aid. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 8(3), 285-295. https://doi.org/10.1017/XPS.2020.27
URL
https://doi.org/10.1017/XPS.2020.27

Reports & Other Materials