Objective Measurement of Education Investment and Assets in Rural Household Surveys
In face to face surveys, there may be concerns about social desirability bias resulting in under-reporting of what respondents perceive as negative behaviours and over-reporting of positive behaviours. This is especially a concern in Randomised Control Trials if these biases are correlated with the likelihood of being treated. For example, those receiving a cash transfer may be more likely to report that they have invested in children’s education or bought assets even if they have not. In rural low and middle income countries, it is hard to obtain administrative data. For example, one way to objectively measure education investments may be to obtain records on school performance of children. However, it is not always possible to link children to schools, such as those in boarding and schools may not always maintain good records. We piloted some measures for the endline survey of a Randomised Control Trial in Kenya (Orkin et al., 2020). Some of the measures were successful but several had to be dropped due to various issues. Below I provide details on each measure and the issues encountered in the setting