Civil Liberties, Economic Slowdown, and Public Health during the time of Pandemic: A Cross-Country Randomized Trial

Last registered on March 31, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Civil Liberties, Economic Slowdown, and Public Health during the time of Pandemic: A Cross-Country Randomized Trial
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005609
Initial registration date
March 29, 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 31, 2020, 3:15 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region
Region
Region
Region
Region
Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Harvard Kennedy School

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Stanford
PI Affiliation
Stanford
PI Affiliation
Harvard
PI Affiliation
MIT

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-03-29
End date
2021-03-29
Secondary IDs
Abstract
During this time of pandemic, we seek to understand how citizens view a set of fundamental tradeoffs between civil liberties, economic wellbeing and health. We have devised a novel survey instrument that seeks to capture these trade-offs explicitly. In addition to leveraging quasi-experimental variation from the severity of crisis to identify the relevant trade-offs, we will also experimentally manipulate the salience of health or civil liberties through two information treatments.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Alsan, Marcella et al. 2020. "Civil Liberties, Economic Slowdown, and Public Health during the time of Pandemic: A Cross-Country Randomized Trial." AEA RCT Registry. March 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5609-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-03-29
Intervention End Date
2021-03-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The tradeoff between health and civil liberties as well as health and economic wellbeing.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Willigness to pay (in terms of lived saved from COVID-19 infection) for specific liberties and economic security.


Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Randomized trial at the individual level to three treatment arms (control, civil liberties or public health).
Experimental Design Details
We will survey respondents in countries across the ideological spectrum (from liberal democracies to autocracies).

Within each country, we will oversample individuals near the epicenter. so we have sufficient variation within and across countries on the intensity of the epidemic

As respondents answer questions on our instrument, they will be randomly assigned to one of three treatment arms: control, civil liberties, or public health.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in-form within country.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
8,000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
one-third in each group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Harvard University
IRB Approval Date
2020-03-24
IRB Approval Number
20-0495

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