Attitudes towards Economists: The Role of Gender

Last registered on August 17, 2022

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Attitudes towards Economists: The Role of Gender

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0009473

Initial registration date

August 12, 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

August 17, 2022, 1:59 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Elaheh Fatemi Pour

Affiliation

University of Warwick

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Daniel Sgroi

PI Affiliation

University of Warwick

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2022-08-15

End date

2022-09-01

Keywords

Behavior, Gender

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

J16, D91, C91

Secondary IDs

Prior work

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

Abstract

We investigate evidence of gender bias in the way the public evaluates economists and the reliability of their research. We design an experiment that helps us identify such bias by analyzing if associating a summary of economic research with a female or male economist affects how people evaluate the research.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Fatemi Pour, Elaheh and Daniel Sgroi . 2022. "Attitudes towards Economists: The Role of Gender ." AEA RCT Registry. August 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.9473-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

We recruit subjects from an online survey platform. Subjects are asked to assess a summary of economic research that a female and male economist have co-authored. To detect gender bias, we randomize the perceived gender of the research's author across two experimental groups, such that subjects infer the research is conducted by a male economist in one group and by a female economist in another.

Intervention Start Date

2022-08-15

Intervention End Date

2022-09-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

The primary outcome of interest is the change in the way male subjects evaluate the importance of the research if they think it is being conducted by a female economist rather than a male economist.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

The secondary outcome of interest is the change in the way the subjects respond to a statement implying male economists are more reliable than female economists if the statement is phrased the other way around.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We provide participants with a summary of research co-authored by a female and male economist and ask them to evaluate it, randomizing the information given to the participants about the gender of the author. The experiment incorporates a between-subject design in which participants are randomly assigned to a group where the research is presented to them as being conducted by a female economist and another group where the research is associated with a male economist. We signal gender using gender-specific pronouns, without referring to gender explicitly or mentioning the authors' names. We ask participants to listen to a short audio track explaining the research and provide their opinions on two statements regarding the research being convinceable and important. Our aim in this experiment is to consider bias among men, therefore our subject pool will be males.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

The randomization is done by the Qualtrics software.

Randomization Unit

At the individual level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

No clusters.

Sample size: planned number of observations

600 male individuals.

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

300 subjects in the male-author group, and 300 subjects in the female-author group.

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

The minimum detectable effect size for the main outcome is 0.27 on a 5-point Likert scale (corresponding to a 6.75 percentage points difference). We assume that the standard deviation is 1.1 for both groups. The standard deviation is calculated based on pilot studies. In order to achieve the mentioned effect size while having a type I error of 5% and statistical power equal to 80%, we require recruiting about 260 subjects in each group. However, based on the results of our pilot, we expect that we will need to eliminate around 10% of the observations as they fail to answer the comprehension and attention tests; therefore we recruit 300 subjects in each arm to make sure that we have the sufficient power.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB