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Gender gaps in earnings and economic empowerment: Experimental evidence from 4 countries

Last registered on March 23, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Gender gaps in earnings and economic empowerment: Experimental evidence from 6 countries
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0005933
Initial registration date
June 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
June 09, 2020, 12:04 PM EDT

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

Last updated
March 23, 2021, 4:36 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Kenya
Region
Country
Rwanda
Region
Country
El Salvador
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
John Loeser
Affiliation
World Bank
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Dahyeon Jeong
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Paul Christian
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Jonas Heirman
PI Affiliation
World Food Programme
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PI Name
Erin Kelley
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
John Loeser
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Gregory Lane
PI Affiliation
American University
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PI Name
Florence Kondylis
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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PI Name
Lelys Dinarte
PI Affiliation
World Bank
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-09-01
End date
2024-06-30
Keywords
Gender, Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
gender empowerment, labor supply, cash transfer
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Can equalizing market opportunities for men and women contribute to closing the gender gap in autonomy? We randomize participation in and participant gender for WFP cash-for-work programs that target poor households in 6 countries. We leverage this variation to estimate the impacts of women's participation in the program, adjusting for household impacts of program participation, on women's autonomy.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Christian, Paul et al. 2021. "Gender gaps in earnings and economic empowerment: Experimental evidence from 6 countries." AEA RCT Registry. March 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.5933-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The program of interest in all countries is a version of WFP's cash-for-assets (CFA) program. CFA functions similarly to cash-for-work programs, in that households are paid a transfer conditional on participating in household level or community work. Exact details vary by
context. The programs are described as "cash-for-assets" because the work component is intended to produce an asset that generates sustained increases in income or welfare for the household or the community, with examples of work ranging from rehabilitating feeder roads to constructing improved latrines to caring for livestock.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2020-10-01
Intervention End Date
2023-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
consumption, earnings, time use, agency, attitudes, perception of norms, well being
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Consumption: Measured as predicted household consumption from the household's expenditures, with coefficients used for prediction estimated in a household survey with a full consumption module from the same context.

Time Use: Time spent outside the home (men and women), time spent working in self-employment (men and women), time spent working for a salary (men and women), time spent working on chores (men and women).

Agency: Standardized indices over agency over consumption, and agency over women's time use.

Attitudes: Standardized indices over women's attitudes towards women's time use, and women's attitudes towards women's agency. In contexts where it is feasible to also survey men, men's attitudes towards women's time use and men's attitudes towards women's agency are included.

Perception of Norms: Standardized indices over perceptions of norms over women's time use, perceptions of norms over women's agency, perceptions of norms over attitudes towards women's time use, and perceptions of norms over attitudes towards women's agency. In contexts where it is feasible to also survey men, men's attitudes towards women's time use and men's attitudes towards women's agency are included.

Well Being: Locus of control score. Standardized index over {affect, life satisfaction score, PHQ9 score}. Standardized index over {standardized index of psychological abuse, standardized index of physical abuse, standardized index of sexual abuse}. Standardized index over preferences over consumption. Standardized index over preferences over time use.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Outcomes for WFP M&E
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
In each country, standard indicators will be collected for WFP M&E. These will be used exclusively for reports to WFP.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
All experimental designs build on random assignment of households or communities to treatment arms which vary whether women participate in CFA, with additional arms to adjust for household or community level impacts of the CFA program. This allows us to estimate the impacts of participation (modeled as a shift in women's wages) on intra-household decision-making.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
varies by context, either household or community
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
El Salvador: 75 sites/communities
Rwanda: 78 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
El Salvador: 1500 households Rwanda: 1173 households
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
El Salvador: 25 sites/communities Control, 25 sites/communities UCT (Male), 25 sites/communities FFA (Female)
Rwanda: 26 villages Control, 26 villages FFA (Mixed), 26 villages FFA (Female)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Solutions IRB
IRB Approval Date
2020-12-22
IRB Approval Number
2020/07/27
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Cash_and_gender_20210323.pdf

MD5: 105e9bd44df0a3517d1944ee828aaca9

SHA1: ac5fb9753b2101aa94541352d5415067d5b5c281

Uploaded At: March 23, 2021

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