The impacts of subsidized nursery access and employment services on mother employment in Egypt

Last registered on April 08, 2021
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The impacts of subsidized nursery access and employment services on mother employment in Egypt
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007471
Initial registration date
April 07, 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
April 08, 2021, 6:15 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Egypt
Region
Middle East and North Africa

Primary Investigator

Name
Bruno Crepon
Affiliation
CREST
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
AbdelRahman Nagy
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Caroline Krafft
PI Affiliation
PI Name
Stefano Caria
PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2021-03-22
End date
2023-09-01
Keywords
Education, Gender, Labor
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
We plan to study the impacts of subsidies access to nursery, employment services, and their combination on mother employment, in the context of a country with very low female labor force participation and conservative gender role norms. We will study impacts on (i) mothers, (ii) children and (iii) on the demand for mothers’ labor among a sample of firms. We are particularly interested to investigate whether subsidies can foster mother’s employment, especially among the poorest mothers who will only take formal childcare up when offered a large discount, and whether the impact of childcare subsidies can be magnified by offering parallel employment services. We will also test whether the intervention has positive impacts on the cognitive development of the children of treated mothers. Finally, we will study whether demand for mothers' labor among local firms increases when they are matched to mothers that receive childcare subsidies, creating a positive feedback loop.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Caria, Stefano et al. 2021. "The impacts of subsidized nursery access and employment services on mother employment in Egypt ." AEA RCT Registry. April 08. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7471-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We study the impacts of (i) a childcare subsidy (of either 25 or 75 percent of the median childcare cost), (ii) an employment service intervention, and (iii) the combination of interventions (i) and (ii).

The childcare subsidy is available for 12 months. Mothers in this intervention will be given a voucher, which they can spend in any nursery of their choice.

The employment service intervention will be run in partnership with a local job intermediation agency, who will match as many mothers as possible in the treatment group with a local employer. Matching consists in referring the mother for an interview with the employer.
Intervention Start Date
2021-03-22
Intervention End Date
2022-03-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
For the mother:
Employment
Wage earnings

For the child:
CREDI and MODEL measures of child development

For the firm:
Hiring of women
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
In our main experiment, we will evaluate the impacts of two interventions:
(i) Childcare subsidies: mothers assigned to this intervention will be eligible for a given subsidy on the price of the local NGO nursery, for one year. We will offer subsidies of 25 percent and 75 percent of median nursery cost;
(ii) Employment services: mothers assigned to this intervention will be connected to local employers providing formal jobs.
We will randomize both interventions at the level of the individual mother. We will assign one fourth of the sample to pure control (no subsidy and no employment services), one fourth of the sample to childcare subsidy but no employment services (evenly split between the two levels of the subsidy), one fourth to employment services but no subsidy, and one fourth to both subsidy and employment services.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Stratified, by computer.
Randomization Unit
individual (mothers)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
5000 mothers
Sample size: planned number of observations
5000 mothers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1250 control mothers, 1250 mothers with subsidies (25% or 75%), 1250 mothers with job placement, 1250 mothers with job placement + subsidies
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
St Catherine University
IRB Approval Date
2020-09-02
IRB Approval Number
#1465
IRB Name
American University in Cairo
IRB Approval Date
2020-08-18
IRB Approval Number
#2019-2020-140
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

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