The experiment was undertaken in 320 rural school sectors (these are like school districts, or communities). Each school sector was randomly assigned to a control group or one of four treatment groups. All families with school-age children who resided in one of these 320 school sectors were part of the experiment. Families in the control group received no cash transfer. Families in two of the treatment groups received a small monthly cash transfer that was conditional: to receive the monthly transfer, their children needed to attend school regularly. Within this group, families were further randomized into one of two groups: one in which the cash transfer was paid to the father, and one in which the cash transfer was paid to the mother. Families in the other two treatment groups received a small monthly cash transfer that was unconditional: families were told that the purpose of the transfer was to support their children's education, but they received the transfer whether their children attended school regularly or not. Again, families within this group were randomized into one of two groups: one where the transfer was paid to the father, and one whether the transfer was paid to the mother. So, to summarize, families were randomly assigned to one of five groups (group and benef are variables in the data for this assignment, described further below): Table 1: Treatment and Control Group Definition group Transfer Type Control 0 None Treatment 1 Unconditional Treatment 1 Unconditional Treatment 2 Treatment 2 Conditional Conditional Transfer recipient (benef) n/a Father Mother Father Mother The data for this assignment are a subset of the data collected at the experiment's "baseline", i.e., at the start of the experiment. At baseline, families had been randomly assigned to the treatment and control groups, but did not know the details of the experiment and had not yet received treatment. You'll find the data in the excel file al_baseline.xls. Each row corresponds to one household. Variable names are in the first row, and are as follows: Table 2: Variable Definitions Variable name hhid schoolid group benef Description ID number of the household ID number of the school sector indicates whether family is in control group (0), unconditional transfer group (1), or conditional transfer group (2); see Table 1 above indicates whether transfer recipient is Mother or Father; see Table 1 above province survey_status hhsize dwellingsize electricity watersuppply childl Province of residence Indicates whether family completed baseline survey or not Number of people residing in this home Floor area of home in m Indicates whether the home is connected to electrical network Indicates whether the home is connected to water network Indicates whether there is at least one child (child #1) age 6-15 residing in this home child1_inschool Indicates whether child #1 is currently enrolled in school child2 Indicates whether there is a second child (child #2) age 6-15 residing in this home child2_inschool Indicates whether child #2 is currently enrolled in school child3 Indicates whether there is a third child (child #3) age 6-15 residing in this home child3_inschool Indicates whether child #3 is currently enrolled in school child4 Indicates whether there is a fourth child (child #4) age 6-15 residing in this home child4_inschool Indicates whether child #4 is currently enrolled in school When doing a randomized experiment, it's usually a good idea to check whether there's any evidence that the randomization was done incorrectly. We can do that by looking for evidence that the baseline characteristics of treatment and control groups are systematically different. That's what you'll do in this assignment. 3) For the control group and each of the treatment groups, report: the average number of people residing in the home the average dwelling size the proportion of families that completed the baseline survey the proportion of homes connected to the electrical network the average number of children residing in this home - the average number of children enrolled in school Do these means and proportions provide any evidence that the treatment and control groups are "unbalanced," i.e., that there are systematic differences between the treatment and control groups at baseline? Explain. 4) For each of the four treatment groups, test whether the average number of children residing in the home is different than the control group mean at the 5% level of significance. (No, we haven't discussed how to do this test, but I have given you tools that you could use to build a reasonable test. There are many ways to do it. Be creative!) hhid schoolid group benef province survey_sta hhsize dwellingsiz electricity A001001 A127 2 Mother Khenifra Survey cor 6 100 No A001002 A127 2 Mother Khenifra Survey cor 3 60 No A001003 A127 2 Mother Khenifra Survey cor 7 100 Yes A001004 A127 2 Mother Khenifra 5 180 Yes A001005 A001006 A127 2 Mother Khenifra Survey cor 8 120 Yes A127 2 Mother Khenifra Survey cor 6 120 Yes A001007 A127 2 Mother Khenifra Survey cor 5 83 No A001008 A127 2 Mother Khenifra Survey cor 4 170 Yes A002001 A002 0 Taroudant Survey cor 4 120 Yes A002002 A002 0 Taroudant Survey cor 5 90 Yes A002003 A002 0 Taroudant Survey cor 5 120 Yes A002004 A002 0 Taroudant Survey cor 8 400 Yes A002005 A002 0 Taroudant Survey cor 6 120 Yes A002006 A002 0 Taroudant Survey cor 9 140 Yes A002007 A002 0 Taroudant Survey cor 7 110 Yes A002008 A002 0 Taroudant Survey cor 5 150 Yes A003001 A339 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 7 80 Yes A003002 A003003 A003004 A003005 A003006 A003007 A003008 A339 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 6 60 Yes A339 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 8 200 Yes A339 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 5 100 Yes A339 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 9 20 Yes A339 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 6 20 Yes A339 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 4 Yes A339 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 5 12 Yes A004001 A004002 A004003 A146 A004004 A004005 A146 A146 2 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 5 80 No A146 2 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 10 120 Yes 2 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 6 120 No A146 2 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 3 64 Yes 2 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 5 -99 Yes A004006 A146 2 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 8 60 No A004007 A146 2 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 6 80 Yes A005001 A248 2 Father Taourirt Survey cor 7 100 Yes A005002 A248 2 Father Taourirt Survey cor 6 80 No A005003 A248 2 Father Taourirt Survey cor 11 90 No A005004 A248 2 Father Taourirt Survey cor 8 40 Yes A005005 A248 2 Father Taourirt Survey cor 7 40 No A005006 A248 2 Father Taourirt Survey cor 5 30 Yes A005007 A248 2 Father Taourirt Survey cor 6 90 Yes A005008 A248 2 Father Taourirt Survey cor 8 50 Yes A006001 A006 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 6 150 Yes A006002 A006003 A006 A006004 A006 A006005 A006 A006006 A006007 A006008 A006 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 7 120 Yes 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 6 200 Yes 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 7 70 Yes 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 7 100 Yes A006 A006 A006 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 6 100 Yes 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 9 140 Yes 1 Mother Taroudant Survey cor 9 150 Yes A007001 A007 2 Mother Taourirt Survey cor 8 100 No