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Empowering Indonesian Migrant Workers to Access Quality Overseas Placement Services

Last registered on January 13, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowering Indonesian Migrant Workers to Access Quality Overseas Placement Services
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000630
Initial registration date
March 03, 2015

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
March 03, 2015, 6:55 PM EST

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

Last updated
January 13, 2022, 2:29 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Indonesia
Region
West Java, Central Java, and East Java

Primary Investigator

Name
Lisa Cameron
Affiliation
Monash University
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Samuel Bazzi
PI Affiliation
Boston University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Simone Schaner
PI Affiliation
University of Southern California
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PI Name
Firman Witoelar
PI Affiliation
The Australian National University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2015-04-01
End date
2019-12-31
Keywords
Labor, Welfare
Additional Keywords
International migration, information, firm quality
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
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.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bazzi, Samuel et al. 2022. "Empowering Indonesian Migrant Workers to Access Quality Overseas Placement Services ." AEA RCT Registry. January 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.630-2.2
Former Citation
Bazzi, Samuel et al. 2022. "Empowering Indonesian Migrant Workers to Access Quality Overseas Placement Services ." AEA RCT Registry. January 13. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/630/history/108949
Sponsors & Partners

Sponsors

Partner

Name
SurveyMETER
Type
private_company
URL
https://www.surveymeter.org/
Name
Mitra Samya
Type
ngo
URL
http://mitrasamya.com/
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
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.
Intervention Start Date
2015-08-03
Intervention End Date
2015-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
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)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
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
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
The randomization was conducted using a computerized random number generator.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization is the village.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
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.
Sample size: planned number of observations
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.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
By treatment arms, 100 villages were assigned to report card treatment group, comic treatment group, report card + comic treatment group, and control group, respectively.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
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.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Boston University Charles River Campus Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2018-10-10
IRB Approval Number
4990E
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

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