Introduction
This document outlines the analysis plans for a cluster-randomized
evaluation of the impact of an affordable daycare program on women’s
economic empowerment. The purpose of a pre-analysis plan is to provide
a clear and transparent accounting of measurements, hypotheses, and
statistical analyses that will be conducted prior to the investigators
having access to data on outcomes. The registration and publication
of pre-analysis plans is hoped to reduce problems related to data
mining, publication bias, and missing trial data \cite{Ioannidis:2014kl},
in addition to prompting researchers to think critically about measurement
and analytic issues prior to any actual data analysis \cite{Miguel:2014bf}.
Nevertheless, such plans are challenging to fully specify in advance,
especially for complex interventions that may have impacts on multiple
outcomes \cite{Olken:2015kl}. This pre-analysis plan was drafted
after the collection of baseline data, but while data collection from
the first follow-up survey was ongoing and data were inaccessible
to the authors. Subsequent data analysis will follow the plan laid
out in this manuscript and any deviations from the plan will make
reference to this document for transparency.
Background
The Uttam Unnati or “great progress”
study is a cluster-randomized evaluation of the impact of an affordable
daycare program on the well-being of mothers and children taking place
in Rajasthan, India. The protocol, detailed design and sampling information,
and power calculations for this study have been published previously
\cite{Nandi:2016fr}. The trial is registered in the International
Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number clinical trial registry
(ISRCTN45369145, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN45369145) and in the
American Economic Association’s registry for randomized
controlled trials (AEARCTR-0000774, http://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/774).
In this manuscript we provide additional details on the primary hypotheses,
outcome measures, and pre-specified analyses that will be conducted
after the first round of follow-up surveys have been completed.
Aims
The primary aims of the study are to provide evidence on whether providing
access to an affordable, community-based day care program affects
women’s social and economic well-being, including their
health. Additionally, we aim to provide evidence of program impacts
on children’s health and schooling. The primary study
hypotheses are that providing access to affordable daycare will: 1)
improve measures of women’s social and economic empowerment; 2) reduce
the time women spend directly caring for children; 3) improve women’s
mental health; and 4) improve the health, nutrition, and schooling
of children. Below we provide additional details on the intervention
and the specific outcome measures we will use to test these hypotheses.