Price beliefs for LPG in Ghana

Last registered on March 29, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Price beliefs for LPG in Ghana
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007417
Initial registration date
March 29, 2021

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 29, 2021, 10:52 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Ghana
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Flavio Malagutti
Affiliation
UCSB
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Sulemana Abubakari
PI Affiliation
Kintampo Health Research Centre
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Kelsey Jack
PI Affiliation
UCSB
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-02-18
End date
2021-03-23
Keywords
Environment & Energy
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This project unfolds in four steps. First, we will test the hypothesis that cooking with LPG (stoves and fuel) is viewed as desirable by Ghanaians but is associated with an expensive lifestyle. Second, we will compare survey respondents’ beliefs about LPG prices with true market prices in their home regions. This comparison gives us the direction and size of possible price information failures in this market. Our third step is to correlate price beliefs with individual and household observable characteristics. This will allow us to learn about key determinants of price perceptions for LPG. Fourth, we will use an experimental design to learn whether and how individuals update their price beliefs upon receiving information about LPG consumption in specific locations. This last piece will teach us about whether and how individuals learn from others in the context of cooking technologies. Results may allow us to think about cost-effective interventions aimed at addressing an information failure in the Ghanaian LPG market.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Abubakari, Sulemana, Kelsey Jack and Flavio Malagutti. 2021. "Price beliefs for LPG in Ghana." AEA RCT Registry. March 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7417-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2021-02-18
Intervention End Date
2021-03-23

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Beliefs about LPG refill price and days worth at the household as a cooking fuel.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
To understand individuals’ beliefs over LPG prices, we elicit both the cost of refilling a cylinder and the per-day cost of cooking with LPG.

Price elicitation: refill. We capture cylinder refill price beliefs by asking the following question: “What do you think is the cost of refilling an LPG cylinder at your nearby station right now?”

Answer choices allow the respondent to answer in whichever unit she is most comfortable (full cylinder, per KG, per liter). We will convert this answer to a price-per-KG variable.

We capture per-day price beliefs by asking the following question: “What is the size of LPG cylinders you are most familiar with? If I brought you a cylinder of this size today and you began cooking all of your household’s meals with it from now on, how long do you think this cylinder would last?"

This answer comes in the “number of days” that the chosen cylinder would last in the household. We will convert this answer to a days-per-Kg variable.

For a random subset of households, we will follow the price questions with an extra question to capture the respondent’s level of confidence on her answer: “How confident would you say you are that the actual (refill cost at your nearby station/number of days the cylinder would last in this household) is what you told me just now?” These answers will be in a Likert scale ranging from “not at all confident” to “very confident.”

We experimentally test whether informing individuals about LPG usage levels (or prevalence) in general populations can impact price beliefs. We randomize survey respondents to an interaction that consists of a prior elicitation followed by the provision of information on the prevalence of LPG in a pre-specified location. For one group (the Accra- information treatment), we elicit respondents’ priors on how many households (out of ten) are currently using LPG stoves as their primary cooking stoves in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Immediately after collecting the answer, the enumerator informs the respondent of the actual statistic, as reported by the Ghanaian Statistical Service. The interaction is exactly the same for our second experimental group (the Ghana-information treatment), except that, in this group, the conversation is framed around the whole country of Ghana. We ask for respondents’ priors on how many households in the country (out of ten) are currently using LPG stoves as their primary cooking stoves.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization programmed in the data collection instrument (tablet).
Randomization Unit
Household
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
7350
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
2450
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Columbia University IRB Exp.
IRB Approval Date
2021-03-16
IRB Approval Number
IRB-AAAS8293
Analysis Plan

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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