Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia

The paucity of reliable, timely household consumption data in many low- and middle-income countries have made it difficult to assess how global poverty has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Standard poverty measurement requires collecting household consumption data, which is rarely collected by...

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Main Authors: Abate, Gashaw T., de Brauw, Alan, Hirvonen, Kalle, Wolle, Abdulazize
Format: Journal Article
Language:Inglés
Published: Elsevier 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131449
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author Abate, Gashaw T.
de Brauw, Alan
Hirvonen, Kalle
Wolle, Abdulazize
author_browse Abate, Gashaw T.
Hirvonen, Kalle
Wolle, Abdulazize
de Brauw, Alan
author_facet Abate, Gashaw T.
de Brauw, Alan
Hirvonen, Kalle
Wolle, Abdulazize
author_sort Abate, Gashaw T.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description The paucity of reliable, timely household consumption data in many low- and middle-income countries have made it difficult to assess how global poverty has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Standard poverty measurement requires collecting household consumption data, which is rarely collected by phone. To test the feasibility of collecting consumption data over the phone, we conducted a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia, randomly assigning households to either phone or in-person interviews. In the phone survey, average per capita consumption is 23 percent lower and the estimated poverty headcount is twice as high than in the in-person survey. We observe evidence of survey fatigue occurring early in phone interviews but not in in-person interviews; the bias is correlated with household characteristics. While the phone survey mode provides comparable estimates when measuring diet-based food security, it is not amenable to measuring consumption using the ‘best practice’ approach originally devised for in-person surveys.
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spelling CGSpace1314492025-10-26T13:01:39Z Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia Abate, Gashaw T. de Brauw, Alan Hirvonen, Kalle Wolle, Abdulazize household consumption low income countries middle income countries poverty coronavirus coronavirus disease coronavirinae covid-19 survey households diets food security food consumption household surveys development The paucity of reliable, timely household consumption data in many low- and middle-income countries have made it difficult to assess how global poverty has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Standard poverty measurement requires collecting household consumption data, which is rarely collected by phone. To test the feasibility of collecting consumption data over the phone, we conducted a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia, randomly assigning households to either phone or in-person interviews. In the phone survey, average per capita consumption is 23 percent lower and the estimated poverty headcount is twice as high than in the in-person survey. We observe evidence of survey fatigue occurring early in phone interviews but not in in-person interviews; the bias is correlated with household characteristics. While the phone survey mode provides comparable estimates when measuring diet-based food security, it is not amenable to measuring consumption using the ‘best practice’ approach originally devised for in-person surveys. 2023-03 2023-08-08T09:33:03Z 2023-08-08T09:33:03Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131449 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134725 https://doi.org/10.1093/wber/lhac015 Open Access Elsevier Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Wolle, Abdulazize. Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia. Journal of Development Economics 161(March 2023): 103026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.103026
spellingShingle household consumption
low income countries
middle income countries
poverty
coronavirus
coronavirus disease
coronavirinae
covid-19
survey
households
diets
food security
food consumption
household surveys
development
Abate, Gashaw T.
de Brauw, Alan
Hirvonen, Kalle
Wolle, Abdulazize
Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia
title Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia
title_full Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia
title_fullStr Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia
title_short Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia
title_sort measuring consumption over the phone evidence from a survey experiment in urban ethiopia
topic household consumption
low income countries
middle income countries
poverty
coronavirus
coronavirus disease
coronavirinae
covid-19
survey
households
diets
food security
food consumption
household surveys
development
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131449
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