The Impact of Consumer-Side Discrimination on Firm Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Last registered on May 20, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Impact of Consumer-Side Discrimination on Firm Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006698
Initial registration date
November 02, 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
November 02, 2020, 8:47 AM EST

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

Last updated
May 20, 2022, 12:44 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Kenya
Region
District of Columbia

Primary Investigator

Name
Erin Kelley
Affiliation
UC Berkeley
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Gregory Lane
PI Affiliation
American University
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PI Name
Matthew Pecenco
PI Affiliation
Brown University
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PI Name
Edward Rubin
PI Affiliation
University of Oregon
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Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2019-01-01
End date
2020-11-11
Keywords
Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Our proposed work returns to the open question of the existence and extent of consumer- based discrimination, asking what role consumers play in gender-based discrimination in labor markets and workplaces in the developing world. Using experimentally-induced variation in consumers’ perceptions of online chat agents’ genders, we will estimate the effect of consumer-side discrimination on both individual and aggregate worker productivity. Specifically, we partner with an online sales company and randomly assign gender-specific names to agents, careful to remove any indications of the assigned names from the agents themselves.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Kelley, Erin et al. 2022. "The Impact of Consumer-Side Discrimination on Firm Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa." AEA RCT Registry. May 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6698-1.2
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
To understand the role that consumer-side perceptions of gender play in determining the productivity of workers, we implement a field experiment with a single treatment arm. In this experiment, each day we randomly select a male or female name to present to consumers for each chat agent at an online sales company.
Intervention Start Date
2019-01-01
Intervention End Date
2019-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Number of Chat; Chat Length (Words, Time); Customer Ever Responded; Agent First Message Length; Customer First Message; Agent First Message Sentiment; Customer First Message Sentiment; Probability of making a sale.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our main test measures the causal effect of consumer-side discrimination on worker productivity by regressing a daily measure of productivity for an individual chat agent, on an indicator for being assigned to a female name.
Experimental Design Details
Our hypothesis is that assignment to a female name will affect the agent's productivity compared to a male name.
Randomization Method
Randomization was done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
We randomize at the agent-by-day level.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
We work with a sales platform with 6 chat agents. We randomly assign each agent a female or male name on a daily basis.
Sample size: planned number of observations
We randomize 6 agents daily to male and female names across 10 months, resulting in 1800 units.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We have approximately 900 units in treatment (female assigned name) and 900 units in control (male assigned name)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Oregon
IRB Approval Date
2018-10-04
IRB Approval Number
08132018.010
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