The Effects of Cash Transfers on Social Preferences

Last registered on November 01, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The Effects of Cash Transfers on Social Preferences
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007738
Initial registration date
May 27, 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
May 28, 2021, 12:48 PM EDT

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

Last updated
November 01, 2023, 1:49 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Stanford University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Stockholm University
PI Affiliation
Princeton University
PI Affiliation
Harvard University

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-04-12
End date
2021-09-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
We describe the analysis plan for a lab-in-the-field study that will examine the effects of unconditional cash transfers on children’s social preferences. The study will be conducted with children living in Nakuru County, Kenya whose parents participated in a previously implemented RCT that provided cash transfers to poor households. Participating households either received a cash transfer, did not receive a transfer but lived in the same village as those who did, or did not receive a transfer and lived in a village in which nobody received a transfer. Participants will be surveyed and will complete several standard economic games measuring their social preferences. For these tasks, they will be paired with individuals of varying relative wealth to assess their social preferences and how social preferences vary with the identity of the other player. We outline the study design, the outcomes of interest, and the econometric strategy for the analysis.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Haushofer, Johannes et al. 2023. "The Effects of Cash Transfers on Social Preferences." AEA RCT Registry. November 01. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7738-2.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2021-04-12
Intervention End Date
2021-09-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Participants’ children in each of the three groups (treatment, spillover, and pure control) will be surveyed and will complete several economic games. The surveys will measure self-reported social behavior, with modules measuring specifically trust, envy, depression, social norms, social ties, perceptions about sharing and redistribution, locus of control, and IQ. The games will be standard economic games that have been modified to be appropriate for children. In the games, the children will get limited information on the other player, namely their age and gender. In some rounds of the games, children will also know the other player’s family household wealth relative to their own family’s wealth. By comparing the behaviors of the children across the three groups, we are able to assess how cash transfers to parents affect children’s prosocial behavior. And by comparing the behaviors within-child across different kinds of partner identities, we are able to assess how prosocial behavior depends on the current distribution of wealth.
In addition, we will resurvey adults, asking them questions about asset ownership, household consumption, and individual well-being. These questions will allow us to assess the persistence of the cash transfers impact on these outcomes for each of the children’s households.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We describe the analysis plan for a lab-in-the-field study that will examine the effects of unconditional cash transfers on children’s social preferences. The study will be conducted with children living in Nakuru County, Kenya whose parents participated in a previously implemented RCT that provided cash transfers to poor households. Participating households either received a cash transfer, did not receive a transfer but lived in the same village as those who did, or did not receive a transfer and lived in a village in which nobody received a transfer. Participants will be surveyed and will complete several standard economic games measuring their social preferences. For these tasks, they will be paired with individuals of varying relative wealth to assess their social preferences and how social preferences vary with the identity of the other player.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was completed by the previous study for the Unconditional Cash Transfer treatment (Haushofer,Johannes, Robert Mudida, and Jeremy P Shapiro, “The Comparative Impact of Cash Transfers and a Psychotherapy Program on Psychological and Economic Well-being,” NBER Working Papers, 2020.). Randomization for the lab experiments (e.g. characteristics of the other player) are randomized by a tablet.
Randomization Unit
The treatment from Haushofer, Mudida, and Shapiro (2020) was randomized at the village level. We randomize for each game a child plays the characteristics of the other player.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
120 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
We aim to visit 4,424 children within our target age range of 6 years old to 17 years old in 1,804 households. This will correspond to 906 children in the treatment households, 1,446 children in the spillover households, and 2,072 children in the pure control households.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We aim to visit 4,424 children within our target age range of 6 years old to 17 years old in 1,804 households. This will correspond to 906 children in the treatment households, 1,446 children in the spillover households, and 2,072 children in the pure control households.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Princeton University
IRB Approval Date
2020-12-09
IRB Approval Number
0000007875
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

The Effects of Cash Transfers on Social Preferences

MD5: 3c46d623e3458dbe206557e3925b1cc7

SHA1: 9b6f1f632fb066fb48a689b163f05c2552214c7f

Uploaded At: May 27, 2021

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
July 30, 2021, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
July 30, 2021, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
1,687 households in 120 villages
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
4,022 children
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
820 children from treatment households, 1,308 from spillover households, and 1,894 from control households
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

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Program Files

Program Files
No
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Abstract
We study the effects of an unconditional cash transfer program on social preferences
of children. The program allocated $1,076 to randomly selected households in rural Kenya. We
measure the social preferences of 4,022 children from 1,687 households with survey questions
and incentivized behavioral games three years after the intervention. We distinguish between
the direct effects on children of recipient households and the spillover effects on children of
neighboring households. We do not find consistent evidence that children from treatment and
spillover groups are more or less prosocial than children from the control group. Additionally,
we find no persistent economic effects of the program. We find some evidence of reduced
psychological well-being among adults and children in spillover households.
Citation
Haushofer, Larreboure, Lowes, Mait (2023). Cash Transfers and Social Preferences of Children.

Reports & Other Materials