Preferences for future partners in the Indian marriage market

Last registered on June 29, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Preferences for future partners in the Indian marriage market
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008717
Initial registration date
December 17, 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
December 19, 2021, 1:16 PM EST

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

Last updated
June 29, 2022, 6:17 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
India
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Ankush Asri
Affiliation
University of Konstanz
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Viola Asri
PI Affiliation
University of Konstanz
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2021-12-17
End date
2022-12-31
Keywords
Behavior, Gender, Lab
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Building on insights from Dhar (2021), this project sheds light on the preferences for future partners in the Indian marriage market context. We conduct a series of online experiments on an Indian marriage market website to assess four questions: 1. How do men's preferences for a working/non-working future wife affect the response rates from women? 2. How does the relative education level of men and women affect the response rates? 3. How does the preference for living with family or not affect the response rates? and 4. How do the beliefs in caste affect the response rates for both men and women? This experiment will examine the impact of different preferences on the matching processes in the Indian marriage market and will thereby highlight the relevant norms that influence marital outcomes.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Asri, Viola and Ankush Asri. 2022. "Preferences for future partners in the Indian marriage market." AEA RCT Registry. June 29. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8717-1.1
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2022-02-01
Intervention End Date
2022-07-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Response rates based on
1. Preferences for working /non-working wife (response rates from female suitors)
2. Belief in caste (response rates from male and female suitors)
3. Preference for living with family (response rates from male and female suitors)
4. Relative education level (response rates from male and female suitors)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Our method is similar to correspondence experiments and specifically focuses on the marriage market with profiles of men and women on an Indian matrimonial website shaadi.com following the design of Dhar (2021). We upload systematically varied matrimonial advertisements for our intervention. Our treatments will vary the following preferences/characteristics:
1, Preference for working/non-working wife
2. Beliefs in caste system
3. Preference for living alone/with family
4. Preference for education level
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done on a comuter
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
9800 suitors
Sample size: planned number of observations
9800 suitors
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
700 suitors per treatment arm
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
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