Paper or Pads? An Experimental Analysis of Survey Technology in West Africa

Scholars in the social sciences are increasingly conducting surveys in the developing world. One major decision in the design of surveys is the choice of technology: should researchers use paper based or tablets to collect their data? This question is of interest to a wide range of scholars yet little if any research has tested if the choice matters. In many rounds of surveys, the Afrobarometer used paper surveys and then switched to using tablets as part of their process of collecting data. Does this matter? Does the technology affect the behavior of respondents and their responses to questions. We investigate this question in this paper. Based on our prior analyses, using both paper and tablets, we believe there will be important differences across the two technologies. First, we believe that survey response rates will be higher for paper based surveys than tablet surveys. Second, we believe that responses to potentially sensitive questions will be different across paper and tablets. Here we will ask respondents if they have vaccinated against COVID-19 and we expect affirmative responses will be lower for the paper survey compared to the tablet. Third, we believe that respondents will be less likely to prefer that the vaccine for COVID-19 is made and produced locally in Côte d'Ivoire when they are presented with paper based surveys than with the tablet. Fourth, we expect that respondents will claim that the national government is less concerned about their health with the paper survey than with the tablet. To test these claims, we will conduct a randomized trial in Abidjan. Eight enumerators will be randomly assigned either a paper based survey or one that will be done with a tablet. Following this assignment, enumerators will follow a random walk in different parts of the same cluster area (Adjouffou) and randomly ask people to participate in the survey.