Publication: Collecting High Frequency Panel Data in Africa Using Mobile Phone Interviews
Date
2012-06
ISSN
Published
2012-06
Author(s)
Abstract
As mobile phone ownership rates have
risen in Africa, there is increased interest in using mobile
telephony as a data collection platform. This paper draws on
two pilot projects that use mobile phone interviews for data
collection in Tanzania and South Sudan. The experience was
largely a success. High frequency panel data have been
collected on a wide range of topics in a manner that is cost
effective, flexible (questions can be changed over time) and
rapid. And once households respond to the mobile phone
interviews, they tend not to drop out: even after 33 rounds
of interviews in the Tanzania survey, respondent fatigue
proved not to be an issue. Attrition and non-response have
been an issue in the Tanzania survey, but in ways that are
related to the way this survey was originally set up and
that are fixable. Data and reports from the Tanzania survey
are available online and can be downloaded from: www.listeningtodar.org.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Croke, Kevin; Dabalen, Andrew; Demombybes, Gabriel; Giugale, Marcelo; Hoogeveen, Johannes. 2012. Collecting High Frequency Panel Data in Africa Using Mobile Phone Interviews. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 6097. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9313 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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