Small Enterprise Employment Financial Assistance

Last registered on January 19, 2022

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Small Enterprise Employment Financial Assistance

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0008833

Initial registration date

January 18, 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

January 19, 2022, 10:23 AM EST

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

Locations

Country

Ghana

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Morgan Hardy

Affiliation

New York University Abu Dhabi

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Jamie McCasland

PI Affiliation

University of British Columbia

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2021-11-01

End date

2023-11-01

Keywords

Firms & Productivity, Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

This project seeks to expand our knowledge of informal wage employment in low- and middle-income countries by observing how wages (and other employment variables) respond to (exogenous) income shocks to small firms and their workers.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Hardy, Morgan and Jamie McCasland. 2022. "Small Enterprise Employment Financial Assistance." AEA RCT Registry. January 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8833-1.0

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Treated firm owners and workers in this study receive a one time mobile money cash transfer of 700GHC. Control firm owners and workers receive a one time cash transfer of 20GHC.

Intervention Start Date

2021-12-01

Intervention End Date

2021-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

wages, job retention, total income (of owner and worker), firm performance

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Wages are measured using worker reported own wage, owner reported worker wage, and owner reported total wage bill. Job retention is measured using owner and worker reported retention. Total income is the sum of wage (for worker) and profit (for owner) from reference business, wage from other wage jobs, profits from other self-owned business, and farming income. Firm performance indicators include firm survival, sales, profits, and size.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

labor supply, labor productivity, consumption, mental health conditions, household income and labor supply

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Consumption and mental health are generated as an index. Labor productivity is measured using a newly developed question described in the attached pre-analysis plan.

Experimental Design

Firms are randomized into three groups - (1) firm owner transfer group, (2) reference worker transfer group, and (2) control group. If firms within the reference worker transfer group have more than one worker, we randomly select one worker from the firm to receive the cash transfer. This results in workers being ultimately allocated to four groups: (1) firm owner treated group, (2) self-treated group, (3) peer-treated group, and (4) control.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

STATA (using random seed)

Randomization Unit

Firm, and (within firms selected for worker cash treatment that have more than one worker) worker

Was the treatment clustered?

Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

The stratified randomization is done at the firm level, with 438 clusters. Within firms with multiple sample workers, an additional worker randomization is relevant for the worker cash transfer group.

Sample size: planned number of observations

The sample in this study consists of 677 workers from 438 firms and their respective owners. Among the firms, 201 of them have 1 eligible workers, and 237 of them have 2-3 eligible workers.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Firm cluster sample sizes: (1) firm owner transfer (145 firms), (2) reference worker transfer (144 firms), and (3) control (149 firms).

Worker treatment group sample sizes: (1) the self-treated (144 workers), (2) employer-treated (225 workers), (3) peer-treated (78 workers), and (4) control (230 workers).

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB