Gender Bias in Investment and Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia

Last registered on December 21, 2022

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Gender Bias in Investment and Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0009064

Initial registration date

March 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

March 10, 2022, 8:58 PM EST

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

Last updated

December 21, 2022, 3:53 AM EST

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

Locations

Country

Ethiopia

Region

Africa

Primary Investigator

Name

Sreelakshmi Papineni

Affiliation

World Bank

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Niklas Buehren

PI Affiliation

World Bank

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2021-10-25

End date

2023-12-31

Keywords

Firms & Productivity, Gender, Lab

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

This lab-in-the-field experiment will measure the gender bias in entrepreneurship and investment among youth and credit officers in Ethiopia. Chigign Tobiya “Ethiopia Emerges” is a television show in Ethiopia where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of business tycoons for a chance to get investment funding. Using actors and actresses we record mock business pitches that keep the business idea of the pitch constant but we vary the gender of the entrepreneur, gender sector stereotype, and pitch quality to examine whether there is a gender bias amongst male and female audience members. We also test the impacts of different content tweaks (entrepreneur backstories, role models, educational content) on gender attitudes and biases in entrepreneurship and investment decisions among youth and credit officers. In the experiment we randomize individuals to watch one of eight different combinations of video clips for 1,600 aspiring entrepreneurs (800 male and 800 female TVET students) and 200 credit officers (from a selected microfinance institution).

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Buehren, Niklas and Sreelakshmi Papineni. 2022. "Gender Bias in Investment and Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia." AEA RCT Registry. December 21. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9064-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

In this study we worked with RENEW, an investment firm in Addis Ababa, who runs a TV business pitching show called Chigign Tobiya (similar to Dragon’s Den in the UK and Shark Tank in the US) to create mock clips that are loosely based on the TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of business tycoons for a chance to get funding. Actors and actresses are used to pitch a business investment idea to the tycoons - the business idea stays constant but we vary gender, sector stereotypes, and pitch quality to examine whether there is a gender bias amongst audience members. Various add-ons to be tested: role model to frame perception of success, information about women in male-dominated sectors, and an emotional backstory. The study will involve randomly showing different video content to different groups to examine what is the gender bias in investment. The focus of this study will be on the opinion of credit officers who currently make investment decisions on entrepreneurial lending and youth who aspire to be entrepreneurs themselves.

Intervention Start Date

2021-10-25

Intervention End Date

2022-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Whether they would invest in the business idea, whether they think the tycoons should invest in the business idea, amount they think the tycoons should invest, how they rate the success of the business, how they rate the entrepreneur overall, how they rate the entrepreneur's skills and knowledge, and whether they consider the entrepreneur to be a good negotiator, leader and manager in business.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Individuals randomized to watch one of eight different combinations of video clips. The lab-in-the-field experiment will include data collection and video watching sessions for 1,600 aspiring entrepreneurs (800 male and 800 female TVET students) and 200 credit officers (from a selected MFI).

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization for MFI study sample completed on a computer prior to the study. Randomization for TVET study sample completed on the tablet after recruitment into the study.

Randomization Unit

Individual level randomization stratified by gender and field of study for TVET students study sample. Individual level randomization stratified by gender and position for MFI credit officers study sample.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Four TVET colleges and one MFI.

Sample size: planned number of observations

The lab-in-the-field experiment will include data collection and video watching sessions for 1,600 aspiring entrepreneurs (800 male and 800 female TVET students) and 200 credit officers (from a selected MFI). Individuals are randomized to watch one of eight different combinations of video clips.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

800 male students are randomized to watch one of eight different combinations of video clips (100 per arm). 800 female students are randomized to watch one of eight different combinations of video clips (100 per arm). 220 credit officers (male and female) are randomized to watch one of two different combinations of video clips (~100 per arm).

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

The randomization will be conducted at the individual level and stratified by gender and field of study. Power calculations were conducted to determine the minimum sample size required to detect a treatment effect of 20% over the control mean at 80% power. We assume the variation in outcome measure as the ratio of the standard deviation to the mean for both treatment and control group is calculated using a ratio of 0.5. Outcome – amount of investment level (max US$ 50,000). Mean investment for women US$ 35,000 and assume an effect size of 20% (i.e. 20% gender gap where control here is mean for men = US$ 42,000). This gives a recommended sample size of 99 observations per arm.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB