Charity and Well-being 01

Last registered on November 07, 2022

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Charity and Well-being 01

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0008028

Initial registration date

August 06, 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

August 09, 2021, 5:29 PM EDT

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

Last updated

November 07, 2022, 4:31 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

New Zealand

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Stephen Knowles

Affiliation

University of Otago

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Lehn Benjamin

PI Affiliation

Indiana University

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm

PI Affiliation

IUPUI

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Anaru Eketone

PI Affiliation

University of Otago

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2021-08-07

End date

2023-10-31

Keywords

Lab, Welfare

Additional Keywords

charitable giving, well-being

JEL code(s)

D64

Secondary IDs

D91

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

The five-decade-old economics literature investigating the private provision of charity has entirely ignored measurement of how much those voluntary contributions impact recipients’ well-being. Instead, the literature has implicitly assumed that every extra dollar contributed to a charitable organization, and spent on recipients, results in an improvement in recipient well-being (i.e., happiness and/or life satisfaction).
We will test for the effect of receiving charity on recipient well-being using a laboratory experiment. Our method for testing whether receiving charity always increases well-being will be to create an environment where people have the opportunity to ask for charity in the laboratory. If people choose not to ask for charity, then this implies asking for charity would reduce their well-being. We also plan to analyze whether “attribution” (the narrative around why people need charity) affects whether people choose to ask for charity or not. Specifically, we will analyze whether there is a difference in rates of asking for charity when the narrative attributes the results to an external cause (due to luck) or an internal cause (due to ability).

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Benjamin, Lehn et al. 2022. "Charity and Well-being 01." AEA RCT Registry. November 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8028-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

2 x 2: {Real-effort: High-score, Low-score} x {Attribution: External, Internal)

Intervention Start Date

2021-08-07

Intervention End Date

2023-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

1. Proportion of Low-scorers who ask for charity
2. (a) Proportion of High-scorers who donate to charity
(b) Amount donated

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

See attached analysis plan.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

1. Self-threat
2. Negative emotion

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

See attached analysis plan.

Experimental Design

Not available.

Experimental Design Details

The lab experiment will be conducted face-to-face, using pencil and paper.

Participants will take part in a real-effort tasking (adding up columns of numbers under time pressure). Those in the top half of the distribution will earn $25 and those in the bottom half of the distribution earn $5. A charitable fund will be created where those in the top half can donate some of their earnings to a charitable fund. The proceeds of the fund will be equally divided between those in the bottom half of the distribution who ask for a share of the fund. Participants will leave the lab via an adjoining room. Those wishing to ask for a share of the charitable fund need to show their participant ID number to an RA who is seated in the adjoining room.

While in the lab participants will answer some survey questions .....(Mark or Lehn to complete)

Randomization Method

Participants will randomly be randomly allocated to sessions, subject to which sessions they are available to attend. The randomisation is by an RA randomly choosing slips of paper for the sessions participants are available.

Randomization Unit

Experimental sessions. Although randomization is by session, we consider which individual participants show up at any particular session to be essentially random. We will use balance tests to confirm this. See attached analysis plan for additional detail

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

The number of sessions will be what is required to reach N = 200 participants. We anticipate between 10-20 sessions will be needed.

Sample size: planned number of observations

We will recruit as many participants as we can, up to our budgeted limit of 200 . Note half will be potential donors and half potential charity recipients.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

100 participants internal; 100 participants external.

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

An effect size of .20 to .25 in the difference between the proportions of Low-internal vs. Low-external who ask for charity. See the attached power analysis.

Supporting Documents and Materials

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