dc.contributor.author | Blattman, C | |
dc.contributor.author | Jamison, J | |
dc.contributor.author | Koroknay-Palicz, T | |
dc.contributor.author | Rodrigues, K | |
dc.contributor.author | Sheridan, M | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-03-06T08:54:34Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2016-01-29 | |
dc.description.abstract | Empirical social science relies heavily on self-reported data, but subjects may misreport behaviors, especially sensitive ones such as crime or drug abuse. If a treatment influences survey misreporting, it biases causal estimates. We develop a validation technique that uses intensive qualitative work to assess survey misreporting and pilot it in a field experiment where subjects were assigned to receive cash, therapy, both, or neither. According to survey responses, both treatments reduced crime and other sensitive behaviors. Local researchers spent several days with a random subsample of subjects after surveys, building trust and obtaining verbal confirmation of four sensitive behaviors and two expenditures. In this instance, validation showed survey underreporting of most sensitive behaviors was low and uncorrelated with treatment, while expenditures were under reported in the survey across all arms, but especially in the control group. We use these data to develop measurement error bounds on treatment effects estimated from surveys. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | This study was funded by the National Science Foundation (SES-1317506), the World Bank's Learning on Gender and Conflict in Africa (LOGiCA) trust fund, the World Bank's Italian Children and Youth (CHYAO) trust fund, the Department of International Development, UK (DFID, GA-C1-RA2-114) via the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), a Vanguard Charitable Trust, the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID, AID-OAA-A-12-00066) DCHA/CMM office, and the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program at Harvard University (Cohort 5). The contents of this study are the sole responsibility of authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers or any of these funding agencies or governments. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Vol. 120, pp. 99 - 112 | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.01.005 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/31847 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Elsevier | en_GB |
dc.rights | © 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ | en_GB |
dc.subject | Measurement error | en_GB |
dc.subject | Survey data | en_GB |
dc.subject | Validation | en_GB |
dc.subject | Field experiments | en_GB |
dc.subject | Liberia | en_GB |
dc.subject | Crime | en_GB |
dc.subject | Drugs | en_GB |
dc.subject | Risky behaviors | en_GB |
dc.title | Measuring the measurement error: A method to qualitatively validate survey data | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.date.available | 2018-03-06T08:54:34Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 0304-3878 | |
exeter.article-number | C | en_GB |
dc.description | This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | Journal of Development Economics | en_GB |