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

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Primary Investigator

Name
Morgan Hardy
Affiliation
New York University Abu Dhabi
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jamie McCasland
PI Affiliation
University of British Columbia
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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
Sponsors & Partners

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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

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
Not available
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

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
New York University Abu Dhabi
IRB Approval Date
2021-09-10
IRB Approval Number
HRPP-2021-103
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

SEEFA Pre-Analysis Plan

MD5: d6422f7a02792c74d8c2567d47871605

SHA1: 1d0ad15a2b7c51bcfc1371e52514437c8062ab2c

Uploaded At: January 18, 2022