Phone surveys in developing countries need an abundance of caution

If you have looked at last year’s Nobel prize winners work in economics you will realize that it is heavily dependent on good quality primary data that is collected through in-person household interviews in developing countries. Over the last few weeks, as the COVID-19 crisis escalated, most researchers (including J-PAL) have suspended in-person field activities for now. This poses huge challenges for those who have data collection efforts planned this year, especially for junior faculty on a tenure clock. And phone surveys seem like a great alternative for these unique and difficult times. J-PAL has shared an excellent post here on best practices for phone surveys and has curated a list of strategies for improving survey response rates on the phone that include suggestions such as building a brand around the phone number, protocols for failed call attempts, making participation attractive through mobile money or airtime, random digit dialing, to name a few. These are great suggestions for researchers who plan to conduct phone surveys during ‘normal times’.