List randomization for sensitive behavior:an application for measuring use of loan proceeds
By: Dean Karlan, Jonathan Zinman
Contributors: Zinman, Jonathan; National Bureau of Economic Research
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 17475; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 17475.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "Policymakers and microfinance institutions (MFIs) often claim to target poor entrepreneurs who then invest loan proceeds in their businesses.  Typically in nonresearch settings these claims are assessed using readily available but unverified self-reports from client loan applications.  Alternatively, independent surveyors could directly elicit how borrowers spent their loan proceeds.  That too, however, could suffer from deliberate misreporting.  We use data from the Peru and the Philippines in which independent surveyors elicited loan use both directly (i.e., by asking how individuals spent their loan proceeds) and indirectly (i.e., through a list-randomization technique that allows individuals to hide their answer from the surveyor).  We find that direct elicitation under-reports the non-enterprise uses of loan proceeds"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 12/15/2011.

Includes bibliographical references.

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