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Beliefs on the speed of Integration

Last registered on November 25, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Beliefs on the speed of Integration
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006711
Initial registration date
November 23, 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 25, 2020, 10:35 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Germany
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Stefan Schmidt
Affiliation
Max-Planck-Institute for Research on Collective Goods
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Matthias Sutter
PI Affiliation
Max-Planck-Institute for Research on Collective Goods
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Frederik Schwerter
PI Affiliation
University of Cologne
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2020-11-24
End date
2020-12-01
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Immigration Preferences, Beliefs
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This project studies the role of beliefs regarding immigrants' speed of integration for immigration preferences. The recent European migrant crisis and US President Trump’s immigration rhetoric and, in particular, his plan’s on a potential border wall are prominent manifestations of what many scholars, pundits, and lay persons understand to be one of the fundamental challenges of the 21st century: how can Western democracies deal with high levels of immigration? We approach this topic by investigating the determinants of immigration preferences. We conduct a representative survey in Germany and relate immigration preferences to individuals’ beliefs regarding immigrants’ speed of integration pertaining to Germany’s culture and economy. We predict that subjects with more benevolent immigration preferences believe immigrants to integrate quickly, while unfavorable immigration preferences are associated with beliefs of slower integration speed. In further analyses, we seek to investigate whether: (i) certain dimensions of integration (pertaining to Germany’s culture or economy) are more relevant for this relationship between the speed of integration and immigration preferences; (ii) we can uncover interesting between-individual heterogeneity in relation to socioeconomic status and exposure to immigration; (iii) the provision of hard information and anecdotal evidence on the speed of integration causally affects immigration preferences.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Schmidt, Stefan, Frederik Schwerter and Matthias Sutter. 2020. "Beliefs on the speed of Integration." AEA RCT Registry. November 25. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6711-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-11-24
Intervention End Date
2020-12-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Native's expected speed of integration of immigrants regarding cultural and economic aspects; Immigration Preferences
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We designed a novel method to measure how quickly individuals believe that immigrants integrate into the German society. We take existing data on the speed of integration of immigrants in Germany pertaining to several cultural and economic issues and group responses according to:
1.) Immigrants that migrated 5 or less years ago
2.) Immigrants that migrated 5-15 years ago
3.) Immigrants that migrated 15-25 years ago
4.) Immigrants that migrated 25+ years ago
Next we ask a representative sample in Germany to predict average responses for each group and infer respondents' expected speed of integration by comparing beliefs across groups. In addition we elicit immigration preferences and several background demographics. Then we relate our new measure of expected speed of integration with actual immigration preferences.

We employ three treatment arms that differ on the information provided after the elicitation of beliefs on speed of integration and before the eliciation of immigration preferences. "Treatment_Control" receives no information. "Treatment_Info" receives a statistic on the actual speed of integration. Data for this statistic is taken from (Harder, Figueroa, et al, (2018)). "Treatment_Anecdotal" also receives the statistic but additionally an anecdotal story of an immigrant and her integration story. This story is build upon the mentioned statistic and contains equivalent information.

Our prediction is that subjects with more benevolent immigration preferences believe immigrants to integrate quickly, while unfavorable immigration preferences are associated with beliefs of slower integration speed. In further analyses, we seek to investigate whether: (i) certain dimensions of integration (pertaining to Germany’s culture or economy) are more relevant for this relationship between the speed of integration and immigration preferences; (ii) we can uncover interesting between-individual heterogeneity in relation to socioeconomic status and exposure to immigration; (iii) the provision of hard information and anecdotal evidence on the speed of integration causally affects immigration preferences.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by survey company
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
6250 Individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
6250 Individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We employ three treatment arms with approx. 2075 observations each.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
December 14, 2020, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
December 14, 2020, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
6300 individuals
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
6300 individuals
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
2100 individuals
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials