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Field
Trial Status
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Before
in_development
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After
completed
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Field
Abstract
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Before
Nearly 700,000 Indonesians migrate abroad for work each year. The vast majority do so through recruiters and placement agencies that facilitate temporary employment in countries across Asia and the Middle East. These agencies support migrants starting with pre-departure paperwork and training through repatriation, and are therefore a crucial determinant of a worker’s migration experience. Potential migrants ostensibly have a great deal of choice between agencies – there are over 400 formally registered firms in Indonesia – and in theory, competition between these firms should drive out poorly performing agencies. Yet existing evidence suggests that agency quality is highly variable, and that many agencies engage in exploitative practices. This could be due to market power at the local level, or informational failures, both of which would hamper competitive pressures. This study will evaluate how making additional information on firm quality available to migrants workers impacts workers' migration choices, migrant worker welfare, and the structure of the migration market at the local level. The experiment will also evaluate whether simply helping migrants understand the importance of choosing a high-quality placement firm can stimulate informal information-sharing through village-level social networks.
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After
Nearly 700,000 Indonesians migrate abroad for work each year. The vast majority do so through recruiters and placement agencies that facilitate temporary employment in countries across Asia and the Middle East. These agencies support migrants starting with pre-departure paperwork and training through repatriation, and are therefore a crucial determinant of a worker’s migration experience. Potential migrants ostensibly have a great deal of choice between agencies – there are over 1,000 formally registered firms in Indonesia – and in theory, competition between these firms should drive out poorly performing agencies. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that agency quality is highly variable, and that many agencies engage in exploitative practices. This could be due to market power at the local level, or informational failures, both of which would hamper competitive pressures.
Our findings from preliminary research suggest that despite the fact that nearly three-quarters of female migrants believe that there is no relationship between the quality of the agencies and the experience with the employer; there is indeed a robust correlation between the two variables. However, migrants attribute the employer quality to "nasib", or fate.
In 2015, we ran information campaigns designed to transmit information on agency quality to potential migrants. Surveys will be conducted to evaluate the impact of the information campaigns on migrants’ outcomes.
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Trial End Date
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Before
November 30, 2018
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After
December 31, 2019
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Last Published
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Before
March 03, 2015 06:59 PM
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After
January 11, 2022 08:09 PM
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Field
Intervention (Public)
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Before
This project has three experimental arms, which feature different combinations of two information sharing products designed specifically for migrant workers.
The first product is a paper-based placement agency “report card”. The report card will rank the most-frequently used placement agencies in the area and will include the name of the placement agency, the number of reviews from migrants, and an overall score, with an associated smiley face graphic to indicate overall quality. The report cards will also include contact information for the placement agencies.
The second product will take the form of a short comic book. The goal of the comic book is to help communicate in an accessible manner the fact that placement agency quality, and not just fate, matters in affecting migration outcomes. (Pilot research indicated that many migrants did not believe agency quality was important for their overall migration outcome. Thus, one reason migrants may not attend to available information about agency quality is that they do not think it is important). The comic will explain why agency quality matters through the story of a fictional migrant worker – here, the emphasis will be on relatable characters and simple, clear language.
Both of these products will be disseminated to potential migrant workers through village-level discussion sessions.
The experimental arms include (a) report card only, (b) comic book only, (c) report card and comic book.
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After
This project has three experimental arms, which feature different combinations of two information sharing products designed specifically for migrant workers.
The first product is a paper-based placement agency “report card”. The report card ranked the most-frequently used placement agencies in the area and included the name of the placement agency, the number of reviews from migrants, and an overall score, with an associated smiley face graphic to indicate overall quality. The report cards also included contact information for the placement agencies.
The second product took the form of a short comic book. The goal of the comic book is to help communicate in an accessible manner the fact that placement agency quality, and not just fate, matters in affecting migration outcomes. (Pilot research indicated that many migrants did not believe agency quality was important for their overall migration outcome. Thus, one reason migrants may not attend to available information about agency quality is that they do not think it is important). The comic explained why agency quality matters through the story of a fictional migrant worker – here, the emphasis is on relatable characters and simple, clear language.
Both of these products was disseminated to potential migrant workers through village-level discussion sessions.
The experimental arms include (a) report card only, (b) comic book only, (c) report card and comic book.
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Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
The aim of this experiment is to measure how the information-sharing service impacts both the migration market and migrant welfare. In addition to understanding overall average impacts, it is also important to understand which migrants benefit the most: thus we will also explore the distributional impacts of the information-sharing intervention. Below we list the outcome variables and indices which we will consider by group. Outcomes marked by an asterisk (*) will be measured using administrative data from the Indonesian Migrant Placement and Protection Body (BNP2TKI).
1. Migration Market:
(a) migration rate*
(b) market share of placement agencies*
(d) use of middlemen
(e) costs paid by migrant workers to agencies and middlemen
(f) migrants beliefs about agency quality
2. Migrant Welfare:
(a) migrant compensation
(b) migrant satisfaction with experience abroad
(c) migrant experiences abroad (e.g. experience of abuse, long work hours etc.)
3. Dimensions of Heterogeneity:
(a) Cognitive ability
(b) Risk and time preferences
(c) Education
(d) Locus of control
(e) Wealth/economic status
(f) Beliefs about migation experiences (e.g. expected compensation, rates of problems)
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After
The aim of this experiment is to measure how the information-sharing service impacts both the migration market and migrant welfare. In addition to understanding overall average impacts, it is also important to understand which migrants benefit the most: thus we will also explore the distributional impacts of the information-sharing intervention. Below we list the outcome variables and indices which we will consider by group. Outcomes marked by an asterisk (*) will be measured using administrative data from the Indonesian Migrant Placement and Protection Body (BNP2TKI).
1. Migration Market:
(a) migration rate*
(b) market share of placement agencies*
(d) use of middlemen
(e) costs paid by migrant workers to agencies and middlemen
(f) migrants beliefs about agency quality
2. Migrant Welfare:
(a) migrant compensation
(b) migrant satisfaction with experience abroad
(c) migrant experiences abroad (e.g. experience of abuse, long work hours etc.)
3. Dimensions of Heterogeneity:
(a) Cognitive ability
(b) Risk and time preferences
(c) Education
(d) Locus of control
(e) Wealth/economic status
(f) Beliefs about migation experiences (e.g. expected compensation, rates of problems)
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Field
Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
This project has three experimental arms, which feature different combinations of two information sharing products designed specifically for migrant workers.
The first product is a paper-based placement agency “report card”. The report card will rank the most-frequently used placement agencies in the area and will include the name of the placement agency, the number of reviews from migrants, and an overall score, with an associated smiley face graphic to indicate overall quality. The report cards will also include contact information for the placement agencies.
The second product will take the form of a short comic book. The goal of the comic book is to help communicate in an accessible manner the fact that placement agency quality, and not just fate, matters in affecting migration outcomes. (Pilot research indicated that many migrants did not believe agency quality was important for their overall migration outcome. Thus, one reason migrants may not attend to available information about agency quality is that they do not think it is important). The comic will explain why agency quality matters through the story of a fictional migrant worker – here, the emphasis will be on relatable characters and simple, clear language
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After
This project has three experimental arms, which feature different combinations of two information sharing products designed specifically for migrant workers.
The first product is a paper-based placement agency “report card”. The report card ranked the most-frequently used placement agencies in the area and included the name of the placement agency, the number of reviews from migrants, and an overall score, with an associated smiley face graphic to indicate overall quality. The report cards also included contact information for the placement agencies.
The second product took the form of a short comic book. The goal of the comic book is to help communicate in an accessible manner the fact that placement agency quality, and not just fate, matters in affecting migration outcomes. (Pilot research indicated that many migrants did not believe agency quality was important for their overall migration outcome. Thus, one reason migrants may not attend to available information about agency quality is that they do not think it is important). The comic explained why agency quality matters through the story of a fictional migrant worker – here, the emphasis is on relatable characters and simple, clear language
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Randomization Method
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Before
The randomization will be done using a computerized random number generator.
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After
The randomization was conducted using a computerized random number generator.
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Planned Number of Clusters
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Before
Total of 400 villages of 8 districts that sent the largest numbers of female migrant workers in Indonesia will be enrolled in the research and randomly assigned to different treatments.
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After
Total of 400 villages of 8 districts that sent the largest numbers of female migrant workers in Indonesia is enrolled in the research and randomly assigned to different treatments.
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Planned Number of Observations
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Before
We will interview approximately 8,000 former and potential migrants at endline.
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After
We interviewed 10,947 respondents in baseline survey. In the mid line 1, we interviewed 4,863 respondents while in mid line 2 we interviewed 4,794 respondents. We will interview approximately 8,000 former and potential migrants at end line.
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Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
By treatment arms, 100 villages will be assigned to report card treatment group, comic treatment group, report card + comic treatment group, and control group, respectively.
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After
By treatment arms, 100 villages were assigned to report card treatment group, comic treatment group, report card + comic treatment group, and control group, respectively.
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Field
Power calculation: Minimum Detectable Effect Size for Main Outcomes
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Before
Assuming 80 percent power, 5 percent size, and an intra-village correlation in outcomes of 0.15 or less, our design will permit a 0.2 or better minimum detectable effect size for outcomes measured at the individual level.
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After
Assuming 80 percent power, 5 percent size, and an intra-village correlation in outcomes of 0.15 or less, our design permits a 0.2 or better minimum detectable effect size for outcomes measured at the individual level.
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Keyword(s)
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Before
Labor, Welfare
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After
Labor, Welfare
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Public analysis plan
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Before
No
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After
Yes
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Field
Building on Existing Work
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Before
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After
No
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