Job attributes and the gender retirement income gap

Last registered on June 07, 2021

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Job attributes and the gender retirement income gap
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007767
Initial registration date
June 04, 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
June 07, 2021, 10:47 AM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
KU Leuven

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
PI Affiliation
Tilburg University

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-06-07
End date
2021-06-28
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that workers are willing to sacrifice a significant portion of their wages to work jobs with better job attributes (e.g., flexibility in scheduling or the ability to work from home). In our project, we will introduce a hypothetical choice experiment into a Dutch Panel survey (LISS) in order to investigate differences in the valuation of job attributes. We are particularly interested in gender differences. In a second step, we will analyze how preferences for non-wage attributes relate to retirement income. Trading off wages for job attributes has an immediate effect on wages, but this implies important consequences for eventual retirement income. To investigate whether individuals take into account the trade-off between current non-wage attributes and future retirement income, we introduce a treatment variation in a discrete choice experiment that makes the long-term consequences salient.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
De Schouwer, Thimo, Iris Kesternich and Bettina Siflinger. 2021. "Job attributes and the gender retirement income gap." AEA RCT Registry. June 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7767-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2021-06-07
Intervention End Date
2021-06-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Preferences for job attributes (by gender and treatment)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We use a discrete choice experiment to elicit survey respondents' stated preferences for job attributes. To analyze whether individuals consider the long-term effects of their job choices, we introduce a treatment variation before the start of the discrete choice experiment. This variation consists of two parts. First, we ask our treatment group (25% of our 55-70 year old respondents, randomly selected) to state how big they believe the gender gap in pension income is. This way, they are forced to think about retirement income and its distributional aspects. Second, we provide them with the OECD estimate of the gender pension gap. This informs our respondents about the actual magnitude of the gap. Keeping this information in mind, the treated group is then asked to answer the same job-tradeoff questions as the control group, who are not reminded about retirement income gaps.
To investigate whether the valuation of job attributes is different between the two groups, we estimate treatment – and control-group specific preferences and test whether they are equal. We analyze gender heterogeneity in the valuation and responses to treatment to gain additional insights.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done by computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
800 individuals
Sample size: planned number of observations
800 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
About 200 individuals treated and 600 individuals control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number

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