Assessment and decision making in the Swedish public employment service - Differences in decision making in cases of misconduct in the unemployment benefit system

Last registered on April 28, 2022

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Assessment and decision making in the Swedish public employment service - Differences in decision making in cases of misconduct in the unemployment benefit system
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0009297
Initial registration date
April 26, 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
April 28, 2022, 5:59 PM EDT

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

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Inspektionen för Arbetslöshetsförsäkringen

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-04-28
End date
2022-04-29
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study sets out to investigate the assessment and decision making of control administrators working at unit EGK at the Swedish Public Employment Service.
Focus is on whether perceived gender or ethnicity affects outcomes.

This pre-registration covers the collection of data through the use of a vignette experiment aimed at control administrators at EGK.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Ottosson, Niklas. 2022. "Assessment and decision making in the Swedish public employment service - Differences in decision making in cases of misconduct in the unemployment benefit system." AEA RCT Registry. April 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9297-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2022-04-28
Intervention End Date
2022-04-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Whether or not a control administrator choses to send information that could lead to punitive action among recipients of unemployment benefits.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Consistecy in decision making between control administrators. Interactions between respondents' background characteristics, for example sex, age and work experience.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This is a vignette experiment in an online survey setting on a set of public sector workers in Sweden.

Respondents will be given information about a fictitious but realistic situation involving a job seeker possibly not living up to the requirements to receive unemployment benefits. The study is aimed at seeking out potential differential treatment of groups by control administrators.
Experimental Design Details
Each situation includes a name and the pronouns for the fictitious job seeker in question. Repsondents will be randomly assigned either a male or female, and either a Swedish or Arabic name. Each case also features a signal of age in the form of a date of birth.
Randomization Method
Computer randomization
Randomization Unit
Unconditional randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1
Sample size: planned number of observations
Sample size consists of approximately 230 potential respondents (control administrators).
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Not applicable
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number

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