Gender Discrimination Against Managers in India

Last registered on March 16, 2020

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Gender Discrimination Against Managers in India

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0005553

Initial registration date

March 13, 2020

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

March 16, 2020, 11:37 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country

India

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Martin Abel

Affiliation

Middlebury College

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2020-03-16

End date

2021-03-16

Keywords

Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This study looks at the effect of management gender and feedback of managers on worker effort and attitudes through an experiment conducted on MTurk, recruiting participants from India. It replicates an earlier set in the U.S.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Abel, Martin. 2020. "Gender Discrimination Against Managers in India." AEA RCT Registry. March 16. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5553-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2020-03-16

Intervention End Date

2021-01-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Measures of effort / productivity: details provided in pre-analysis plan.
Measures of attitude: details provided in pre-analysis plan.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Details provided in pre-analysis plan.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

In this randomized control trial, we have two main stages of randomization through a factorial design: half of workers are assigned a female manager, half a male manager. We then provide 60% of each group with performance feedback. The other 40% does not receive any feedback and will thus serve as the control group for the feedback treatment (more details in pre-analysis plan). We will look at both attitude and effort outcomes of praise and criticism (more details in pre-analysis plan).

Experimental Design Details

We design a simple transcription task on MTurk and recruit participants from India. We ask workers to assess whether the receipt is legible and, if so, transcribe each item and the price. In addition, we ask them to add up all numbers as a voluntary task. Participants are randomly assigned the name of either a female of a male supervisor. After transcribing four receipts, 60% of participants are randomly assigned to receive feedback on their previous performance. Specifically, the assigned manager informs them about whether they are above or below average. Participants then continue transcribing three additional receipts. The group that does not receive any feedback serves as the control group. Afterwards, we collect attitude outcomes such as whether they are interested in working for us again in the future and how much they agree with statements such as “The feedback I received was accurate.” We then debrief participants about the specifics of the research question (the HIT mentioned performance will be recorded for research purposes) and invite them to complete a short survey in which we collect demographic characteristics as well as a test that assesses the implicit bias that participants hold with regard to gender and career.

Randomization Method

Randomization is done through the survey software Qualtrics.

Randomization Unit

Individual worker on MTurk.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

N/A

Sample size: planned number of observations

3000 workers

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

1500 are assigned to each female and male manager. (Note that we cross-randomize gender with the caste of the manager, which is focus of a different study.)
For each female and male managers, 60% receive feedback on performance.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB