Housing Microfinance and Climate Resilience in the Philippines

Last registered on May 03, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Housing Microfinance and Climate Resilience in the Philippines
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009124
Initial registration date
May 02, 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
May 03, 2022, 9:48 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Philippines
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Russell Toth
Affiliation
University of Sydney
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Russell Toth
PI Affiliation
University of Sydney
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Teevrat Garg
PI Affiliation
University of California - San Diego
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Ricardo Dahis
PI Affiliation
PUC-Rio
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-05-16
End date
2023-06-30
Keywords
Environment & Energy, Finance & Microfinance
Additional Keywords
housing microfinance, climate resilience, consumer education, risk perceptions
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Low-income households in the Philippines lack sufficient access to affordable and resilient housing to protect them from the physical and economic damages brought by increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as typhoons and floods. We partner with a large microfinance NGO and an NGO focused on housing for low-income households, to evaluate a new housing microfinance product. We will run a 2x2 randomized evaluation that cross-randomizes the education component (versus no education) and the new housing loan terms (versus being offered the old housing loan terms), against a control group. The main outcomes are short-term impacts on perceptions of climate risk and resilience, knowledge and plans for house construction, and other measures of resilience. The study will create new knowledge about how to support low-income households in obtaining housing that is resilient to extreme weather events, which is relevant across a number of developing countries that are vulnerable to climate change.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Dahis, Ricardo et al. 2022. "Housing Microfinance and Climate Resilience in the Philippines." AEA RCT Registry. May 03. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9124
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The interventions are a new pilot loan product that features increased loan amount and loan tenure, and high-touch consumer education on building resilient houses.
Intervention Start Date
2022-05-16
Intervention End Date
2022-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
There are four areas of primary outcomes: (1) loan usage, (2) climate resilience of dwelling, (3) climate resilience of households, and (4) economic outcomes such income, expenditure and savings.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We will run a 2x2 randomized evaluation that cross-randomizes the education component (versus no education) and the new loan terms (versus being offered the old loan terms), against a control group.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization will be done by computer using Stata.
Randomization Unit
Randomization will be at the microfinance client-group level (720), stratified by loan officer (70).
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
720 microfinance client groups, across 12 MFI branches and 70 loan officers.
Sample size: planned number of observations
On average each client group has about 25 clients, so the eligible population has about (720 client groups) x (25 clients) = 18,000 clients. We will obtain administrative data on all of these clients, and mini-survey data on all who agree to respond. We plan to survey 2000 of these ASA clients, through a phone survey: -1000 loan takers across treatment arms, where loan takers are successively surveyed as they take up the loans, at least 3 months after they first take up the loan. Once any treatment arm reaches 250 surveyed, we will stop surveying loan takers from that arm. -500 randomly-selected non-loan takers across treatment groups, evenly selected at 125 per group. These will be surveyed so the survey timing balances with the loan taker group. Since a non-loan taker could later become a loan taker, we will randomly replace any respondents who later attrit from this group by taking up a loan. -500 randomly selected clients in the pure control group. These will be surveyed so the survey timing balances with the loan taker group.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Each treatment arm, and the control, have 144 clients groups.

This leads to the following number of observations per treatment arm:
Administrative data and mini-survey: up to (144 client groups) x (about 25 per group) = 3,600 per arm.
Phone survey:
-Treatment arms: up to 250 loan takers + up to 125 non-loan takers = up to 375
-Control arm: 500
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan