The effect of production and process performance for political trust during the covid-19 pandemic

Last registered on November 28, 2020

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

The effect of production and process performance for political trust during the covid-19 pandemic

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0005615

Initial registration date

March 30, 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, 3:14 PM EDT

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

Last updated

November 28, 2020, 8:07 AM EST

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

Locations

Country

Denmark

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Maria Falk Mikkelsen

Affiliation

VIVE - The Danish Center for Social Science Research

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2020-03-30

End date

2020-12-31

Keywords

Governance, Health, Welfare

Additional Keywords

Political trust, Public performance

JEL code(s)

H83, H11, H12

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This study will use a conjoint survey experiment to test the importance of production and process performance for political trust. The survey is fielded during the third week of school closures in Denmark (March 30th-April 6th) due to the coronavirus (covid-19). The survey experiment tests the effect of production performance outcomes (fatality rate, economic costs) and process performance outcomes (equality in health, equality in economic costs, use of cellphone data) on political trust and the respondents’ preferred choice of strategy towards the coronavirus.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Mikkelsen, Maria Falk. 2020. "The effect of production and process performance for political trust during the covid-19 pandemic." AEA RCT Registry. November 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5615-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The survey experiment uses a conjoint design. Respondents are either presented with the hypothetical outcomes of one strategy (1/3 of the respondents) or two strategies (2/3 of the respondents) that vary on five dimensions. The respondents are told to imagine that the government is considering the strategy/the strategies in the fight against covid-19 and are asked to score the strategy/the strategies in relation to political trust and prefered choice of strategy.

Intervention Start Date

2020-03-30

Intervention End Date

2020-04-06

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Rating of strategy, Political trust

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The survey experiment uses a conjoint design. Respondents are either presented with hypothetical outcomes of one strategy (1/3 of the respondents) or two strategies (2/3 of the respodents). The respondents are told to imagine that the government is considering the strategy/the strategies in the fight against covid-19. The strategies vary on five dimensions (which are presented randomly):
1) The fatality rate (three outcomes)
2) The economic costs (three outcomes)
3) Useage of GPS data from cellphones (two outcomes)
4) Who will be able to get tested for the virus (three outcomes)
5) Who will suffer from most from the economic costs (two outcomes)

Respondents are assigned one or two of the 108 strategies randomly.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization by computer

Randomization Unit

Individual

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

2000 individuals

Sample size: planned number of observations

2000 individuals

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

As the study uses a conjoint design the concept of treatment arms is not applicable. The study does, however, divide the respondents into two groups. One group will only be presented with one strategy (approximately 650 individuals), while the other group (1,350) is presented with two strategies.

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB