# **3 Description of the Survey and Other Data**

## **3.1 Survey Instrument**

The goal of the survey is to gain understanding of aspects of a business connected to spatial aspects. In particular, we are interested in learning in what dimensions the ICT sector differs from the other sectors of the economy. The survey captures measures of firm performance, capital accumulation, trade, and workforce, as well as the perception of growth and the challenges encountered.

The sample frame used is the universe of private sector establishments operating in the West Bank based on the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) Establishment Census 2017. The sample was selected using stratified cluster sampling. Strata are defined according to the following variables: North and South of the West Bank, large and small villages, large and small establishments (below and above 10 employees), and industry subgroups (ICT, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and other industries).<sup>1718</sup> Within a stratum, clusters were identified as establishments belonging to the same stratum and located in the same town. A sample of 10% of the establishments was selected in each cluster. Firms within the cluster have been identified using a random walk approach. The sample size has been chosen as to obtain unbiased estimates with 90% confidence intervals at 10% precision for the whole universe, as well as for the following industry sub-groups: IT, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail trade. The survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews and followed by call-back interviews to guarantee high quality of the data, in two phases, from 28/03/2019-05/06/2019 and from 22/12/2019-07/01/2020.<sup>19</sup> More information on the methodology is provided in the appendix.

A total of 533 interviews were completed. For comparison, the World Bank 2019 Enterprise Survey for West Bank and Gaza consisted of 365 interviews, 205 of which were in the West Bank. Given our main focus on ICT, this industry is over-represented in the survey (table 2), representing 23.6% of the sample or 126 interviews and 14% of the existing establishments. The remaining 407 interviews cover the manufacturing sector (87 interviews), the retail and wholesale trade sector (202 interviews) and other industries (118 interviews).

As in the population of reference, almost half of the ICT firms interviewed are retailers or repairers (table 3), while the other half consists of firms conducting activities such as computer programming, telecommunications, information services, and other ICT related activities.<sup>20</sup>

> 17Sectors excluded from the analysis are: agriculture, mining and quarrying, electricity and water supply, public administration and defense, compulsory social security, activities of households as employers, undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use, activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies. Retailers of ICT products are excluded from the wholesale and retail trade. Repairers of ICT products are excluded from other industries.

> 18We will refer to the wholesale and retail trade sector as retail.

> 19In the second phase, call-backs and 65 additional interviews were conducted.

20Businesses conducting maintenance and repair often also sell computers and other hardware components as secondary economic activity.

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