Using Paradata to Assess Respondent Burden and Interviewer Effects in Household Surveys: Evidence from Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Over the past decade, national statistical offices in low- and middle-income countries have increasingly transitioned to computer-assisted personal interviewing and computer-assisted telephone interviewing for the implementation of household surveys. The byproducts of these types of data collection are survey paradata, which can unlock objective, module- and question-specific, actionable insights on survey respondent burden, survey costs, and interviewer effects – all of which have been understudied in low- and middle-income contexts. This study uses paradata generated by Survey Solutions, a computer-assisted personal interviewing platform used in recent national household surveys implemented by the national statistical offices of Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. Across countries, the average household interview, based on a socioeconomic household questionnaire, ranges from 82 to 120 minutes, while the average interview with an adult household member, based on a multi-topic individual questionnaire, takes between 13 to 25 minutes. The paper further provides guidelines on the use of paradata for module-level analysis to aid in operational survey decisions, such as using interview length to estimate unit cost for budgeting purposes as well as understanding interviewer effects using a multilevel model. Our findings, particularly by module, point to where additional interviewer training, fieldwork supervision, and data quality monitoring may be needed in future surveys.