Be Wary of Those Who Ask : A Randomized Experiment on the Size and Determinants of the Enumerator Effect

Di Maio, Michele ; Fiala, Nathan

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ENUMERATOR EFFECT;    RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENT;    SURVEY EXPERIMENT;    POLITICAL PREFERENCES;    SURVEY BIAS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8671
RP-ID  :  WPS8671

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

During survey data collection,respondents' answers may be influenced by thebehavior and characteristics of the enumerator, theso-called enumerator effect. Using a large-scale experimentin Uganda randomly pairing enumerators and respondents, thestudy explores for which types of questions the enumeratoreffect may exist. It is found that the enumerator effect isminimal in many questions, but is large for politicalpreference questions, for which it can account for over 30of the variation in responses. The study then explores whichenumerator characteristics, and which of their combinationwith respondent characteristics, could account for thiseffect. Finally, the conclusion provides some practicalsuggestions on how to minimize enumerator effects, andpotential bias, in various types of data collections.