# **5 Results**

## **5.1 Summary Statistics and Tests of Balance**

The demographic characteristics of respondents in the second survey are similar to the first. The average age of respondents is 30.5 years and 92% of respondents are Muslim. Almost all men work (99%), while 83% of women work. Wives of male respondents are considerably less likely to be working (53%) than female respondents.

Respondents were randomly allocated across treatment arms (with stratification by gender; education; and whether the voucher choice was real or hypothetical).<sup>24</sup> Table 1 provides summary statistics and tests of balance. Importantly, we found that the personal beliefs in this sample are almost identical to those in the first survey which were used for the treatment design. Of female respondents, 75% reported that they were supportive of married women with children under the age of 12 working for pay outside the home (compared to 76% in the first survey), and 63% of male respondents were supportive (compared to 62% in the first survey). Further, 95% (90%) of female (male) respondents reported being supportive of shared day-to-day childcare, compared to 96% (90%) in the first survey. Respondents reported that 75% of their mothers are supportive of the above (this information was not collected in the first survey).

The control and treatment arms are well balanced. Only two variables differ across arms, with the differences being relatively small and statistically significant only at the 10% level.

### **5.1.1 Social Desirability Bias**

One concern with reporting of attitudes is that the reports may reflect experimenter demand effects. That is, respondents might be more likely to report friendlier attitudes towards working women, to experimenters who are likely to be in favor of women working. The effect of social desirability bias is lessened in online surveys due to the lack of personal interactions, nevertheless, to ascertain the extent to which this is a problem, we collected information on a 5-item social desirability scale following Crowne and Marlowe (1960)

> level; b) It is currently difficult to find a good job in Indonesia; c) Unemployment is a big problem in Indonesia; and d) Women with young children should be supported to work outside the home. The list experiment enables the researcher to identify whether respondents in the treatment groups are more likely to agree with the statement about women with young children being supported to work outside the home (as it is the only statement that should be affected by the information interventions) from a comparison of answers across the control and treatment groups, without being able to identify whether individual respondents agreed with that particular statement. It thus has the advantage of not being affected by social desirability bias. However, it produces imprecise estimates of intervention impacts. The treatments did not have a significant impact on choices in the list experiment. Results available on request.

> 24Two of Qualtrics’ panel partners would not allow us to provide vouchers to respondents. These panel partners contributed 20% of respondents. These respondents were asked which they would choose if given a choice i.e. a hypothetical choice.

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