Communication During a Pandemic

Last registered on June 30, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Communication During a Pandemic
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006104
Initial registration date
June 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
June 30, 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
University of California, Berkeley

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Barnard College, Columbia University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-07-01
End date
2020-12-31
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Information-sharing and communication are key features of pandemics. In particular, people share information about the outbreaks, communicate with family and friends—be it either for support or not, including employers—be it formal and informal etc., with implications for welfare. We deploy and fielded high frequency phone surveys and interventions that provide either a “lump-sum phone calling credit” or “weekly phone calling credit” to households during COVID-19 in Ghana. These allow us to relax binding communication barriers and estimate the causal impact of information-communication on households’ communication-risk sharing, expenditure, mental wellbeing and gender relations. We add to the space of potentially resilient policy initiatives aimed at tackling pandemics.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Annan, Francis and Belinda Archibong. 2020. "Communication During a Pandemic." AEA RCT Registry. June 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6104-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2020-08-15
Intervention End Date
2020-09-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
(1) general information and (mis) beliefs about COVID19
(2) information and communication-sharing (value, as measured by: unmitigated calls)
(3) expenditures on and conditional transfers
(4) mental health, happiness and gender relations
(5) using phone for communication, discussing information about COVID19, communication and transfer motives: pure charity versus conditional reciprocity
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
2 experimental treatments (lump-sum phone calling credit vs weekly phone calling credit) and 1 control program, stratified by localities (or districts)
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
computer softwares and simple lotteries
Randomization Unit
(household) individual-level
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
130
Sample size: planned number of observations
2000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
668 individuals for control, 666 individuals for treatment program 1, and 666 individuals for treatment program 2
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Georgia State University
IRB Approval Date
2020-05-06
IRB Approval Number
H20668

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