Pandemics and willingness to pay for Public Health

Last registered on April 02, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Pandemics and willingness to pay for Public Health
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005619
Initial registration date
April 01, 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
April 02, 2020, 12:11 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Universitat de Barcelona

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Universitat de Barcelona
PI Affiliation
Universitat de Barcelona

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-04-02
End date
2020-04-03
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We conduct a survey experiment in Spain during the third week of the lock-down. This week was around the peak (information of 30/03/20) of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain. Different regions are still on different trajectories as the onset happened at different points in time, resulting in heterogeneity across regions. We provide two information treatments to participants and collect various outcomes regarding public health and public finance.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Foremny, Dirk, Pilar Sorribas Navarro and Judit Vall Castello. 2020. "Pandemics and willingness to pay for Public Health." AEA RCT Registry. April 02. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5619-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Two information treatments provide mortality by age groups and the number of cases within regions to participants.
Intervention Start Date
2020-04-02
Intervention End Date
2020-04-03

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
P40: Design of the government budget across 9 categories (defense, education health, housing, pensions, transport, security, social services, labor)
P41: Opinion about the health care system
P42: Willingness to pay taxes for an improved public health care system (three randomized improvements: vaccine, intensive care beds, medication)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Health related outcomes (P36: own health both physical and mental health; P37: being worried about health and health of relatives; P38/P39: live expectancy; P43/P44: trust in society and government; P45: voluntary work)

Expectations and information bias (P32/P33: cases tomorrow and in one week; P34: incidence in own region; P35: mortality for elderly)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We provide two information treatments to participants informing them about the current epidemiological situation of the pandemic and the case fatality rate of the virus.
Experimental Design Details
Both information treatments are shown by short animated videos.

Treatment 1: The animation provides information that different age groups are affected to different degrees, and that the mortality rate varies substantially across the age distribution. We explicitly mention and highlight that the older are the most vulnerable part of the population.

Treatment 2: We provide information about the current incidence at the regional level of the virus and the total number of infections in Spain. We highlight the differences in the incidence across regions.

The intervention is based partially on identifying effects by exploiting variation of the treatment at two dimensions. The treatment based on the case fatality rate (treatment 1) interacts with the family profile of the respondent (we collect the age of the partner, parents, and grandparents). On the other hand, the information treatment which shows the incidence rate across different regions (treatment 2) interacts with the region of residence of each respondent.

We can compare outcomes of our survey questions to surveys conducted before the outbreak of the pandemic (by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, CIS) which are publicly available. For this reason, many of our questions are framed in the same way as prior surveys.
Randomization Method
Randomization into the groups by the survey company
Randomization Unit
Individual level, quotas as below
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We collect 1068 completed surveys, which provides representativeness for the population of Spain at a 95% confidence level with a margin of error of 3%.

Quotas (%, obs in quota)
Andalucía (18%, 196)
Aragón (3%, 30)
Principado de Asturias (2%, 24)
Illes Balears 2%, 26)
Canarias (4%, 48)
Cantabria (1%, 13)
Castilla y León (5%, 56)
Castilla-La Mancha (4%, 47)
Catalunya (16%, 173)
Comunitat Valenciana (11%, 113)
Extremadura (2%, 25)
Galicia (6%, 62)
Madrid (14%, 149)
Murcia (3%, 34)
Navarra (1%, 15)
País Vasco (5%, 50)
La Rioja (1%, 7)

18-24 (12%, 127)
25-34 (15%, 162)
35-44 (22%, 238)
45-54 (20%, 218)
55-65 (17%, 183)
65+ (13%, 140)

Male (50%, 534)
Female (50%, 534)
Sample size: planned number of observations
We collect 1068 completed surveys, which provides representativeness for the population of Spain at a 95% confidence level with a margin of error of 3%. Quotas (%, obs in quota) Andalucía (18%, 196) Aragón (3%, 30) Principado de Asturias (2%, 24) Illes Balears 2%, 26) Canarias (4%, 48) Cantabria (1%, 13) Castilla y León (5%, 56) Castilla-La Mancha (4%, 47) Catalunya (16%, 173) Comunitat Valenciana (11%, 113) Extremadura (2%, 25) Galicia (6%, 62) Madrid (14%, 149) Murcia (3%, 34) Navarra (1%, 15) País Vasco (5%, 50) La Rioja (1%, 7) 18-24 (12%, 127) 25-34 (15%, 162) 35-44 (22%, 238) 45-54 (20%, 218) 55-65 (17%, 183) 65+ (13%, 140) Male (50%, 534) Female (50%, 534)
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
All three groups (treatment 1, treatment 2, and control) will be of the same size and the quotas above are respected within the groups.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
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