Adaptations for phone surveys: A webinar with Tavneet Suri

27 March 2020 update: A recording of the webinar and associated materials (Tavneet's slides, SurveyCTO code, abbreviated quesitonnaire) are now available on our Best practices for conducting phone surveys post. 

Event description:

The safety of staff and respondents who participate in our research is of highest priority for J-PAL. As of March 17, J-PAL has therefore suspended all research activities that contribute to in-person interactions in order to limit COVID-19 spread.

Given the incredible uncertainty of how long the current shutdowns will last, the need to do urgent anti-COVID-19 research, and to make sure we find opportunities for our survey staff to be safely and productively engaged, it is important that we not wait but innovate on how we can resume our research operations, wherever possible, in a way that is safe for the surveyors, respondents, and the communities we live in.

To this end, Tavneet Suri will share insights from transitioning a large-scale survey for the UBI Kenya project from in-person to phone interviews, with a focus on shortening and adapting questionnaires to be conducted via phone (such as by identifying key outcomes, simplifying questions, and aggregation). She will start with a presentation, followed by Q&A. 

Tavneet Suri is an Associate Professor of Applied Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She is an NBER Faculty Research Fellow, a Junior Affiliate at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), a Research Affiliate at J-PAL, a Research Affiliate at the Center for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the Co-Director of the Agriculture Research Programme at the International Growth Center (IGC). Tavneet’s research centers on applied microeconomic issues in sub-Saharan Africa. In particular, she works on technology adoption (agricultural, water, cell phone), risk sharing and consumption smoothing, the role of measurement error in poverty dynamics, and the role of infrastructure in the development of markets. Her research currently spans Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda and Sierra Leone.