Call Me Maybe: Experimental Evidence on Using Mobile Phones to Survey Microenterprises
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2016-07-27
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High-frequency data is useful to measure volatility, reduce recall bias, and measure dynamic treatment effects. We conduct the first experimental evaluation of high-frequency phone surveys in a developing country or with microenterprises. We randomly assign microenterprise owners to monthly in-person, weekly in-person, or weekly phone interviews. We find high-frequency phone surveys are useful and accurate. Phone and in-person surveys yield similar measurements, with few large or significant differences in reported outcome means or distributions. Neither interview frequency nor medium affects reported outcomes in a common in-person endline. Phone surveys reduce costs without increasing permanent attrition from the panel.
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Scholars@Duke
Robert J Garlick
Robert Garlick joined the economics department as an assistant professor in 2014. He previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the World Bank's Development Research Group and holds a PhD in economics and public policy from the University of Michigan. Garlick was born and raised in South Africa, where he studied economics, mathematics and philosophy at the University of Cape Town and managed a small education nonprofit.
Garlick studies education and labor economics in developing countries. He is currently working on peer and network effects in education, determinants of education investments by households, and transitions between education and the labor market. This work spans empirical and methodological topics, and includes primary data collection in and analysis of secondary data from Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
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