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Testing the Effectiveness of Mobile Phone Data Collection for Microenterprises in Africa

Last registered on April 07, 2014

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Testing the Effectiveness of Mobile Phone Data Collection for Microenterprises in Africa
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0000346
First published
April 07, 2014, 10:49 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Duke University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
University of Oxford
PI Affiliation
University of Cambridge

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2013-12-04
End date
2014-09-12
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This project proposes a Randomised Controlled Trial to test the effectiveness of using mobile phones to collect data on microenterprises. The researchers intend to track microenterprises over a 16-week period, with random assignment to alternative survey methods. The trial will run in Soweto, a low-income neighbourhood in South Africa, where the team is working with a partner NGO to prepare a randomised evaluation of an entrepreneurship training program. This presents an ideal opportunity to explore innovative data collection methods for microenterprises in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The researchers will conduct a listing exercise in Soweto in order to build a representative sample of 900 enterprises, which will then be divided between three data collection methods, using stratified random assignment:
- conventional face-to-face interviews at four-weekly intervals
- conventional face-to-face interviews at weekly intervals; and
- mobile-phone based interviews at weekly intervals.
This will allow the team to investigate (i) the relative accuracy of face-to-face and mobile phone-based interviews, and (ii) the degree of volatility in microenterprise outcomes omitted from low-frequency (monthly) interviews. All firms in the sample will also receive face-to-face baseline and endline interviews, in order to improve the comparability of the data collected across the three sub-groups.

If the results from this study suggest that we can accurately collect high-frequency data on microenterprise profits and sales using mobile phones, researchers will have a powerful and cheap new method for measuring volatility and dynamics in microenterprise performance. This is directly relevant for a very wide range of policy questions concerning microenterprises. For example, it is often argued that one key advantage of microfinance is that it helps to smooth shocks. It remains unclear whether microfinance does this by implicitly insuring microenterprises against unanticipated shocks, or by helping microenterprises to deal more effectively with ‘lumpy’ costs (such as end-of-month rent payments). This is a critical distinction for understanding how microfinance products can be improved, but is very difficult to identify without high-frequency data. If mobile phones can be used to reliably measure microenterprise performance, researchers will be able to characterise this volatility much more precisely, and better understand how volatility shifts over time.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Garlick, Robert, Kate Orkin and Simon Quinn. 2014. "Testing the Effectiveness of Mobile Phone Data Collection for Microenterprises in Africa." AEA RCT Registry. April 07. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.346-1.0
Former Citation
Garlick, Robert, Kate Orkin and Simon Quinn. 2014. "Testing the Effectiveness of Mobile Phone Data Collection for Microenterprises in Africa." AEA RCT Registry. April 07. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/346/history/1491
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Intervention Start Date
2014-03-10
Intervention End Date
2014-07-04

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
See attached pre-analysis plan.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Experimental Design Details
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Randomization Method
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Randomization Unit
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Sample size: planned number of observations
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
See attached pre-analysis plan.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
See attached pre-analysis plan.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Oxford Central University Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2013-07-30
IRB Approval Number
ECONCIA1213/0020
Analysis Plan

Analysis Plan Documents

preanalysisplan.pdf

MD5: cd02925f9f25cdcb605bc5b731c1c4df

SHA1: 87db45155418d91d17b48d89bf419657c569bee0

Uploaded At: April 07, 2014

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials