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 has 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 done by phone....

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Autores principales: Abate, Gashaw T., de Brauw, Alan, Hirvonen, Kalle, Wolle, Abdulazize
Formato: Artículo preliminar
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: United Nations University 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141085
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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 has 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 done 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 was 23 per cent lower than in the in-person survey, and the estimated poverty headcount was twice as high. There is 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 CGSpace1410852025-12-08T10:29:22Z Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia Abate, Gashaw T. de Brauw, Alan Hirvonen, Kalle Wolle, Abdulazize survey data less favoured areas household surveys surveys covid-19 urban areas households capacity development developing countries experimentation survey fatigue food security food consumption survey methods information and communication technologies survey design consumers poverty household consumption The paucity of reliable, timely household consumption data in many low- and middle-income countries has 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 done 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 was 23 per cent lower than in the in-person survey, and the estimated poverty headcount was twice as high. There is 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. 2022-08-01 2024-04-12T13:37:15Z 2024-04-12T13:37:15Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141085 en https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134939 Open Access United Nations University Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Wolle, Abdulazize. 2022. Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia. WIDER Working Paper 2022/93. https://doi.org/10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2022/227-0
spellingShingle survey data
less favoured areas
household surveys
surveys
covid-19
urban areas
households
capacity development
developing countries
experimentation
survey fatigue
food security
food consumption
survey methods
information and communication technologies
survey design
consumers
poverty
household consumption
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 survey data
less favoured areas
household surveys
surveys
covid-19
urban areas
households
capacity development
developing countries
experimentation
survey fatigue
food security
food consumption
survey methods
information and communication technologies
survey design
consumers
poverty
household consumption
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141085
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