Is there discrimination against children of same sex households? Evidence from an experimental study in Colombia

Last registered on August 25, 2022

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Is there discrimination against children of same sex households? Evidence from an experimental study in Colombia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008802
Initial registration date
February 06, 2022

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
February 07, 2022, 1:36 PM EST

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

Last updated
August 25, 2022, 8:37 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
EAFIT

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
EAFIT
PI Affiliation
EAFIT

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-02-14
End date
2022-12-31
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Despite Colombia's very progressive legal protections for the LGBTQ+ communities, same sex households face unique challenges. Of particular concern is school discrimination against the children in schools. If schools prevent or make it more difficult for same-sex parents to register their children in school, this could severely limit the options available to parents and lead them to make suboptimal choices. We aim to determine the existence and quantify the extent of discrimination against children of LGBTQ+ parents through a correspondence study. We will send fictitious requests for information to schools across the country to register a child, randomly varying the names of both parents in a way that conveys different sexual orientations. Our proposed project would add to this literature by providing evidence of discrimination against LGBQT+ families during school applications in the context of Colombia, a developing country that, despite important progress in equalizing the rights of the queer community, still has a long journey to go to further reduce discrimination against minorities.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Cantet, Natalia, Brian Feld and Monica Hernandez Florez. 2022. "Is there discrimination against children of same sex households? Evidence from an experimental study in Colombia." AEA RCT Registry. August 25. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8802-1.2
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We aim to determine the existence and quantify the extent of discrimination against children of LGBTQ+ parents.
Intervention Start Date
2022-02-14
Intervention End Date
2022-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Whether the schools reply to the emails and the number of days it took for the schools to reply.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
An index that will measure the "quality" of the response
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Based on the text of the emails, we wIll qualify the answers to create an index

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We aim to determine the existence and quantify the extent of discrimination against children of LGBTQ+ parents through a correspondence study. We will send fictitious requests for information to schools across the country to register a child, randomly varying the names of both parents in a way that conveys different sexual orientations.
Experimental Design Details
The proposed experiment will be conducted among all private and a sample of urban public Colombian schools during the 2022 school year with the intention of registering for the following school year. We will obtain the list of schools from the National Statistics Department (DANE), which maintains a database of all schools in the country. We will use this list to obtain additional information from each school regarding its type (religious or secular), tuition cost, enrollment, and average score in standardized tests, among others. We will only use this information as control variables in our study and to conduct heterogeneity analysis. In addition, we will collect the contact e-mail that schools make available for parents to request information about enrollment.
After we have identified the best form of contact for each school, we will send requests to visit the school with the excuse of deciding where to enroll the child. In the requests, we will include the names of the parents (or the name of one parent, depending on the treatment). Each school will receive two requests, sent 2 weeks apart: one from a same-sex couple (randomly choosing the gender of both parents) and one from a heterosexual couple (in which the gender of the sender will match the gender selected for the same-sex couple).
In the departments with the highest number of private schools (Valle del Cauca and Bogotá DC, with approximately 1,500 schools each) we will randomly choose whether the second e-mail is sent by an explicitly heterosexual couple (in which the names of both parents are mentioned) or a couple in which only one name is mentioned. This will be done with the purpose of comparing the differences in response rates and types and test if including only one parent name reduces discrimination at this stage of the process.
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done in a computer
Randomization Unit
The randomization will be at the school level
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
9013 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
18026 emails in 9013 schools
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Treatment 1 (Gay copule - heterosexual couple): 3840 schools
Treatment 2 (Lesbian copule - heterosexual couple): 3854 schools
Treatment 3 (Gay copule - no information on spouse): 807 schools
Treatment 3 (Lesbian copule - no information on spouse): 809 schools
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
EAFIT
IRB Approval Date
2021-09-29
IRB Approval Number
N/A

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