Conscription and Nation-Building: Lessons from Argentina

Last registered on November 20, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Conscription and Nation-Building: Lessons from Argentina
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008950
Initial registration date
February 07, 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 08, 2022, 9:44 AM EST

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

Last updated
November 20, 2024, 3:39 PM EST

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

Locations

Country
Argentina
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Diego Ramos-Toro
Affiliation
Dartmouth College
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Juan Pedro Ronconi
PI Affiliation
Brown University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-02-08
End date
2023-05-09
Keywords
Behavior, Crime, Violence, & Conflict, Governance
Additional Keywords
Nation-building, civic values, social cohesion, religiosity.
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We describe the analysis plan for an online intervention designed to examine how inducing participants to think about the values instilled in the military affects values and views related to nation-building, civic values, and social cohesion more broadly. The study will be conducted online with men of 45 years and older living in Argentina. Participants will share their opinion about the lessons and values that serving in the military taught those who were conscripted. The primary experimental treatment is the order in which individuals respond to this open-ended question. We outline the study design, the treatments, the main heterogeneous treatment effects that we will examine, and the econometric strategy for the analysis.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ramos-Toro, Diego and Juan Pedro Ronconi. 2024. "Conscription and Nation-Building: Lessons from Argentina." AEA RCT Registry. November 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8950-1.2
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Participants will answer a question about mandatory military service before or after answering survey questions about the key outcomes that we will examine.
Intervention (Hidden)
Our main interest pertaining to our intervention will be its heterogeneous treatment effects based on having served in the military or not.
Intervention Start Date
2022-02-08
Intervention End Date
2022-05-09

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcome variables are the answers to questions about nation-building, social cohesion, national affiliation, civic values, and religiosity.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The order of questions will vary depending on treatment status. Treated individuals will provide their answers to several survey questions after sharing an opinion about conscription in Argentina, while untreated ones will provide such an opinion by the end of the survey.
Experimental Design Details
Participants will answer questions about their degree of support for different views related to nation-building, national affiliation, cleavages, social capital, religiosity, and civic values. All participants will respond to an open-ended question about the values and lessons that conscription instills on those who were drafted. Half of the participants will answer the questions about national affiliation/civic values before responding to the open-ended question, and the other half will answer after answering the open-ended question.
Randomization Method
Randomization will be stratified at the cohort level to guarantee that 50% of participants within each cohort are treated. We will implement the randomization using Qualtrics.
Randomization Unit
The unit of randomization will be the individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
2500 Argentinian men of 45 years and older
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
1250 treated; 1250 untreated
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects at Dartmouth
IRB Approval Date
2022-01-13
IRB Approval Number
STUDY00032419
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

Pre-Analysis+Plan+-+Conscription+Argentina+.pdf

MD5: a63e99fab8709c35639099d534d36700

SHA1: 7bfe8cf91fab0263a7babbd2a557b882ad72158a

Uploaded At: March 02, 2022

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