Economic Success through Salvation? Experimental Evidence from the Evangelical Movement

Last registered on February 07, 2022
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Economic Success through Salvation? Experimental Evidence from the Evangelical Movement
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008931
Initial registration date
February 05, 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, 1:38 PM EST

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

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Name
Francesco Loiacono
Affiliation
Institute for International Economic Studies, Stockholm University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jakob Svensson
PI Affiliation
Professor
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Andreas Madestam
PI Affiliation
Associate Professor
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2020-11-01
End date
2023-06-30
Keywords
Behavior, Welfare
Additional Keywords
Religion
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
A vast literature has documented the importance of cultural beliefs and norms for economic performance. In search of the ultimate link between beliefs and prosperity, an obvious role has been suggested for religion. Evangelicalism is among the most dynamic religious movements in the world and is the fastest growing portion of Christianity. Yet despite this expansion, little is known about the evangelical movement’s expansion, especially at the individual level.

This project examines the causal impact of joining the evangelical movement on economic well-being and various other socioeconomic outcomes. The impact will be assessed using a randomized-control encouragement design.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Loiacono, Francesco, Andreas Madestam and Jakob Svensson. 2022. "Economic Success through Salvation? Experimental Evidence from the Evangelical Movement." AEA RCT Registry. February 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8931-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2020-11-01
Intervention End Date
2023-06-30

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
i) Religious activities and beliefs;
ii) Primary economic outcomes (incl. monthly consumption, monthly income, adult weekly labor supply, assets, access to credit, and perceived economic status);
iii) Primary well-being outcomes (incl. measures of life satisfaction and health status);
iv) Preferences and beliefs (including risk aversion, optimism measures, self-control measures, moral values and trust measures);
v) Family outcomes (marriage, domestic violence, alcohol consumption, and children’s schooling outcomes);
vi) Social ties and connections; and vii) Political beliefs and attitudes.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Impact will be assessed using a randomized-control encouragement design. Specifically, the evaluation will exploit one of several outreach activities run by a local Pentecostal church, where members of the ministry makes personal visits to individuals and invites the visitees to attend a service run by the church. The proposal calls for randomly assigning the set of individuals who receive a visit from the members (pastors) of the ministry, without changing the number of pastors involved in the outreach or the time they spend in the field.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual level, stratified by city
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
3,000 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1,500 in the encouragement group and 1,500 in the control one
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
We estimate that a design with 3,000 households, assuming a 30 percentage points difference in attending service between those being invited and those not being invited, has 80% power to detect a statistically significant effect size of 0.34 standard deviations.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Mildmay Uganda REC
IRB Approval Date
2020-03-02
IRB Approval Number
0301-2020
Analysis Plan