Marginal rates of substitution, technology adoption, and welfare

Last registered on December 23, 2019
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Marginal rates of substitution, technology adoption, and welfare
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005203
Initial registration date
December 22, 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
December 23, 2019, 4:45 PM EST

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

Last updated
December 23, 2019, 5:31 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Kenya
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
John Loeser
Affiliation
World Bank
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Yonas Alem
PI Affiliation
University of Gothenburg
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2017-02-06
End date
2017-06-08
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
What determines how individuals make trade offs across time periods, and do individuals make these trade offs in an internally consistent matter? We propose to test this by repeatedly remotely eliciting individuals' intertemporal marginal rates of substitution using money earlier or later games. We will randomly assign cash transfers and the interest rate for a financial technology across these individuals. In a neoclassical framework, individuals choices in money earlier or later games and savings decisions using the financial technology should be consistent, implying money earlier or later games can be used to measure the welfare gains from financial technologies and predict technology adoption more broadly.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Alem, Yonas and John Loeser. 2019. "Marginal rates of substitution, technology adoption, and welfare." AEA RCT Registry. December 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5203-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
*** Commitment savings ***
Access to a commitment savings account; deposits can be made by mobile money paybill, and all deposits are returned by mobile money transfer 8 weeks after the initial deposit. Interest is only paid on the first 10000 KSH of deposits, and is compounded daily. Individuals are randomly assigned monthly interest rates of -3%, 0%, or 20%.

*** Cash transfers ***
8000 KSH cash transfer via mobile money
Intervention Start Date
2017-02-20
Intervention End Date
2017-06-08

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Intertemporal marginal rates of substitution (money earlier or later switch points, following Dean and Sautmann (2016)), savings with financial technology
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
RCT (cross randomization of cash transfers and commitment savings interest rates)
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Computer randomization
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
350
Sample size: planned number of observations
350
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
CT, -3% monthly interest = 50, No CT, -3% monthly interest = 66
CT, 0% monthly interest = 50, No CT, 0% monthly interest = 67
CT, 20% monthly interest = 50, No CT, 20% monthly interest = 67
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
June 08, 2017, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
June 08, 2017, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
349
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
349
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
CT, -3% monthly interest = 50, No CT, -3% monthly interest = 66 CT, 0% monthly interest = 50, No CT, 0% monthly interest = 66 CT, 20% monthly interest = 50, No CT, 20% monthly interest = 67
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials