Understanding the Details of Mentorship among Kenyan Microenterprises

Last registered on March 24, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Understanding the Details of Mentorship among Kenyan Microenterprises
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005564
Initial registration date
March 17, 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 24, 2020, 11:02 AM EDT

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

Locations

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Yale University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Notre Dame
PI Affiliation
University of Notre Dame

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2020-02-15
End date
2021-12-01
Secondary IDs
Abstract
In earlier work (Brooks, Donovan, and Johnson, 2018) we studied the impact of a mentorship program among female microenterprise owners in Dandora, Kenya. This study will test various margins of our original design to better understand the impact of microenterprise mentorship. The first is whether an optimal matching algorithm can generate larger effects than random matching. To do so, we will use our previous work to compute the optimal matching protocol. We will then compare firms who receive a mentor via that protocol and compare to another treatment arm of random matching (the baseline in Brooks, Donovan, and Johson, 2018). Second, we will study the extent to which mentees can pass mentor information to other firms. To do so, we will randomly assign mentees to mentor control firms after 6 months. Finally, we will ask the extent to which our optimal matching protocol predicts excess benefits relative to random matching in other locations.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Brooks, Wyatt, Kevin Donovan and Terence Johnson. 2020. "Understanding the Details of Mentorship among Kenyan Microenterprises." AEA RCT Registry. March 24. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5564-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Our intervention involves one-to-one matching among microenterprise owners in a "mentorship" program in Dandora, Kenya. The difference across treatment arms will be how those mentorship matches are formed. It will involve multiple RCTs.

#1: We will compute the optimal matching protocol using our earlier work on mentorship in the same location. We will then randomize firms into (1) control, (2) random mentor, (3) mentor from matching protocal.

We will then study whether mentees can pass information to other firms. This is RCT #2:
#2: Randomly assign mentees from #1 to mentor control firms.

Finally, we will study whether our optimal matching protocol predicts any difference in impact in Ongata Rongai. This is RCT #3:
#3: Re-do RCT 1 in Ongata Rongai, using same matching protocol.

Intervention Start Date
2020-03-15
Intervention End Date
2021-03-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Firm profit, costs, revenues, inventory
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Step 1: randomize firms into (1) control, (2) random mentor, (3) optimal mentor. (to study impact of "optimal" mentoring)
Step 2: After a pre-specified period of time, randomize mentees to mentor control firms (to study passthrough)
Step 3: Repeat Step 1 in Ongata Rongai
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Firm
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
873 in Dandora, 800 in Ongata Rongai
Sample size: planned number of observations
873 in Dandora, 800 in Ongata Rongai
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Control = 362, Random mentor = 255, Optimal mentor = 256. Similar proportions in Ongata Rogai.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Yale University
IRB Approval Date
2019-03-04
IRB Approval Number
2000024890
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