Firm Take-Up of COVID-19 Benefits

Last registered on April 08, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Firm Take-Up of COVID-19 Benefits
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005647
Initial registration date
April 08, 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 08, 2020, 11:54 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Portugal
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Christopher Hansman
Affiliation
Imperial College London
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-04-07
End date
2021-04-07
Keywords
Finance & Microfinance, Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We investigate firm take-up of two COVID-19 focused benefits which provide (i) wage support for workers who are kept on payroll and (ii) lines of credit backed by government guarantees. We randomly assign firms to a series of treatment wings providing either information regarding the program, or a combination of information and step-by-step application support. We plant to investigate the impact of these interventions on program take-up, borrowing, employment, and firm performance.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Hansman, Christopher. 2020. "Firm Take-Up of COVID-19 Benefits." AEA RCT Registry. April 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5647-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Treated firms will receive emails with information only or information and step-by-step instructions for one of two governmental measures to support firms during the COVID-19 crisis.
Intervention Start Date
2020-04-07
Intervention End Date
2021-04-07

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcomes will be (i) program application, (ii) program receipt (iii) firm-level employment, (iv) firm-level borrowing, (v) firm performance, (vi) survey responses.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
We will consider heterogeneous effects by baseline levels of (i) financial constraints (as measured in survey-subsample and through administrative data_ and (ii) manager's financial literacy (as measured in survey subsample).
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our design consists of four treatment arms and one control group. 1/3 of the sample is assigned to the control group, while 1/6 is assigned to each of the remaining treatment arms. Our first treatment arm entails information about layoff support measures. Our second treatment arm entails information and application support for layoff support measures. Our third treatment arm entails information about credit lines. Our fourth treatment arm entails information and application support for credit lines. We stratify at the three-digit industry level. Additionally, 20 percent of all respondents receive a supplemental survey.
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
Approximately 173,00 firms
Sample size: planned number of observations
Approximately 173,000 firms with publically listed emails.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approximately 58,000 firms assigned to control, just under 29,000 receive one of the following four treatments: (i) information about layoff support measures, (ii) information and application support about layoff support measures, (iii) information about credit lines, (iv) information and application support about credit lines.
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

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