A Cautionary Tale : An Experiment on the Stability of Business Environment Perceptions in a Firm Survey
Several studies in the literature have adopted attitude or perception-based survey questions to evaluate the business environment and its effect on firms. The Enterprise Surveys of the World Bank are not an exception. In the case of the Enterprise...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/791411617632412553/A-Cautionary-Tale-An-Experiment-on-The-Stability-of-Business-Environment-Perceptions-in-a-Firm-Survey http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35405 |
| Summary: | Several studies in the literature have
adopted attitude or perception-based survey questions to
evaluate the business environment and its effect on firms.
The Enterprise Surveys of the World Bank are not an
exception. In the case of the Enterprise Surveys, these
questions involve rating an element of the business
environment at the end of each section of the survey
instrument. Such questions are often used but sometimes are
inconsistent with responses elicited on the experience of
the firm over a specific timeframe—experience-based
questions. The literature is mixed as to whether
perception-based questions are susceptible to anchoring or
context effects. In this study, an experiment is set up to
explore whether perceptions of the business environment are
stable or vulnerable to the ordering of questions in the
Enterprise Surveys questionnaire. The experiment entails
randomizing the placement order of the perception-based
questions at the end of a section or at the beginning of the
survey. Significant question-order effects are uncovered
only for perceptions of corruption and business licensing
and permits but not the other elements, after accounting for
a variety of factors. The study recommends that analysis in
these two areas should go beyond perception-based questions
and verify their findings with experience-based questions. |
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