Measuring the Unmeasured : Combining Technology and Behavioral Insights to Improve Measurement of Business Outcomes
Business survey outcomes for micro and small firms are notoriously noisy, with multiple sources of measurement and recall error. This paper introduces a new survey methodology that combines automatic consistency checks of electronic data collection...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/848101556644958454/Measuring-the-Unmeasured-Combining-Technology-and-Behavioral-Insights-to-Improve-Measurement-of-Business-Outcomes http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31601 |
| Summary: | Business survey outcomes for micro and
small firms are notoriously noisy, with multiple sources of
measurement and recall error. This paper introduces a new
survey methodology that combines automatic consistency
checks of electronic data collection with triangulation and
dynamic adjustment to arrive at more precise estimates of
business performance. The methodology uses insights from
behavioral science to lower the cognitive cost of initial
recall and establishes salient and relevant anchors to allow
for dynamic triangulation and adjustment toward a final
estimate. The validity of this method is field tested
against traditional performance measures as well as
administrative data across three emerging markets: Ghana,
Rwanda, and Uganda. The results show significant upward
adjustment from traditional measures for both sales and
profits, a lower coefficient of variation in the
cross-section, and higher autocorrelation in panel data.
Comparisons with administrative data further confirm a
higher correlation and closer magnitude relative to
traditional measures. This research reconciles
recommendations for increased attention to survey design
with a method to leverage electronic survey technology
beyond consistency checks. |
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