Sorting by Participation: A Field Experiment in a Stem-cell Registry

Michael Haylock, Patrick Kampkötter, Mario Macis, Susanne Seitz, Robert Slonim and Daniel Wiesen

No 35998, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Unavailability of stem-cell donors at the confirmatory typing (CT) stage, an operational milestone in the stem-cell donation process, reduces the effective supply of life-saving transplants for blood cancer patients worldwide. Although (potential) donors register voluntarily, requests may come much later, when circumstances and commitment have changed; keeping registered donors engaged and identifying who will follow through are therefore central managerial questions for registries. In a field experiment with a leading stem-cell registry, we randomize the framing of routine invitations to an engagement initiative. Relative to a business-as-usual letter, our experimental letters present the registry’s requests more saliently; two of them add identity framings inviting donors to join a “quickly available” or a “highly committed” donor team. The salience and identity framings significantly reduce initiative participation compared to the business-as-usual rate, yet intention-to-treat analyses show no detectable effect on average CT availability. Our central finding is that participation sorts donors by reliability: participants are unavailable in 12% of cases, versus 30% of non-participants. From a managerial perspective, opting in works as a reliability flag. Prioritizing participants in our experimental arms implies a relative increase of up to 7.5% more one-year survivors compared to not using this flag. Gains from flagging are likely to be larger for registries with lower availability.

JEL-codes: C93 D64 D82 D91 I12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-11
Note: EH
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