Assessing the impact of collectivisation on weaver value chains in India

Last registered on October 15, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Assessing the impact of collectivisation on weaver value chains in India
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008373
Initial registration date
October 13, 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
October 15, 2021, 1:27 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Bidisha Barooah
Affiliation
International Inititative for Impact Evaluation
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Tarun Jain
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Krishna Kejriwal
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-10-14
End date
2023-11-30
Keywords
Firms & Productivity, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Women form 3/4th of India's weavers but they are primarily engaged in activities lower in the weaving value chain that are characterized by low returns and drudgery. This study examines the impact of a project that aims to collectivise women weavers into producer enterprises, thereby moving them from being wage earners to owners. After collectivisation, women will be provided trainings on advanced weaving technology and business management. The project will set up common weaving facilities and link women weavers to urban and global value chains and markets. Using village-level randomisation, we examine the impact of of the project over 2 years.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Barooah, Bidisha, Tarun Jain and Krishna Kejriwal. 2021. "Assessing the impact of collectivisation on weaver value chains in India." AEA RCT Registry. October 15. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8373-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This project will be implemented by an organisation named Chitrika. Chitrika is an incubator of handloom and artisan enterprises. Since 2006, it has successfully incubated three collective enterprises in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. These are registered as farmer producer companies (FPCs). The project will collectivise around 1100 weavers either by bringing them into the fold of existing collectives or forming new collectives. The key activities undertaken by the collectives are 1) Procurement and processing of raw material, 2) Doorstep delivery and collection of yarn and finished products, 3) On-loom and off-loom quality assurance, 4) Consumption loans, 5) Mobilization of finance for operations and investments, 6) Design Development, 7) Management skilling, 8) Marketing and 9) Technology support. A key innovation of the project is the push towards enhancing women’s role in management of their own businesses as well as in the collective. This will be done by training women with a “Micro Hand-made MBA” along with training on technology. The second innovation under this project is the setting up of five integrated handloom hubs to provide value chain development services to weavers.
Intervention Start Date
2021-11-10
Intervention End Date
2023-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Women's participation in entrepreneurial activities, Women’s social networks, Women's weaving skills, enterprises production, Women's income, Women's confidence, Women’s ownership and control over productive and financial assets, Sales/Profits of collective enterprise, Women’s agency in (i) personal (ii) household (iii) enterprise and (iv) community decision making
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study sample comprises of 77 villages across 5 crafts cluster (overlapping with districts). We used data on village demographics and infrastructure from the Census 2011 in randomisation. We use the following village-level census data in randomization: Female labour force participation, Female labour force participation in agriculture, Female labour force participation in non-agriculture, Female literacy rate and Male labour force participation. Using the STATA-15 “randomize” command, we block randomised at the cluster level to assign villages into two groups while ensuring balance on female labour force participation rate, percentage of women employed in agriculture, percentage of women employed in non-agriculture, female literacy rate, male labour force participation.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Centralised computer in office
Randomization Unit
Village
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
77 villages
Sample size: planned number of observations
3000 households and 3000 women
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
39
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Catalyst Foundation Institutional Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2021-10-02
IRB Approval Number
N/A
Analysis Plan

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