Who Ya Gonna Call?: Investigating gender differences in demand for parental involvement

Last registered on April 28, 2021

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Who Ya Gonna Call?: Investigating gender differences in demand for parental involvement

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0007610

Initial registration date

April 27, 2021

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, 2021, 10:30 AM 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

Olga Stoddard

Affiliation

Brigham Young University

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Kristy Buzard

PI Affiliation

Syracuse University

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Laura Gee

PI Affiliation

Tufts University

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2021-05-15

End date

2022-06-15

Keywords

Behavior, Gender, Labor

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

J16, J01

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This study aims to investigate whether there are gender inequities in asking parents to engage in child-related activities. Furthermore, we study whether these inequalities vary by (1) signaling parents’ willingness and ability to do these tasks or (2) by the gender of the external decision-maker contacting the parent.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Buzard, Kristy, Laura Gee and Olga Stoddard. 2021. "Who Ya Gonna Call?: Investigating gender differences in demand for parental involvement." AEA RCT Registry. April 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7610-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2021-06-07

Intervention End Date

2022-05-15

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Our primary outcome variable is which parent (the mom or the dad) is contacted first.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Additional outcome variables include whether a principal contacted both parents and the order in which the parents were contacted.

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We will send out email messages to a universe of school principals in the U.S. from a two-person heterosexual household. These messages will ask the principal to contact a parent about a general school-related inquiry and will provide two phone numbers - one for the husband and one for the wife. As part of the experiment, we will also randomly vary the content of our messages to include informational signals about which of the two parents is more available to chat discuss school-related queries. This will allow us to investigate the “motherhood effect” by comparing whether a mother is more likely to be called back first even when a father is described to be more available. Furthermore, we will test whether the size of the motherhood effect varies by the gender of the external decision-maker, that is the gender of the school principal.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization by computer

Randomization Unit

Individual/principal-level

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

Sample size: planned number of observations

Approximately 100,000 subjects (school principals in the U.S.)

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Approximately 20,000 principals control, 20,000 principals dad positive signal treatment, 20,000 principals dad negative signal treatment, 20,000 principals mom positive signal treatment, 20,000 principals mom negative signal treatment.

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB