Replication Data for: Respondent biases in agricultural household surveys

This is the replication package of the paper titled “Respondent biases in agricultural household surveys,” by Andrew Dillon and Edouard Romeo Mensah. The paper (and this replication package) uses data collected from 1,028 households in Burkina Faso in early 2017. Abstract: Two sources of respondent bias introduce measurement error into household statistics: asymmetric information between the proxy respondent and the individual on whom they report; and aggregation bias when a proxy respondent reports on a household-level outcome across multiple individuals. We estimate the effects of respondent biases in a survey experiment in Burkina Faso by varying who reports on the agricultural production of household members. We find respondent biases are not solely attributable to asymmetric information. Choosing a household head proxy lowers aggregation biases, but results in both over and under-estimates of agricultural variables relative to random proxies. Random proxies systematically under report agricultural statistics. Self-reporting protocols increase enumerator work days by only 5% indicating a high bias-cost tradeoff in choosing proxy response over self-reports. Survey designers should weight whether proxy bias magnitude or direction of bias are more significant threats to parameter estimation when determining their proxy response protocol.