USING MOBILE PHONES TO COLLECT PANEL DATA IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

摘要

The rapid spread of mobile telephony throughout the developing world offers researchers a new and exciting means of data collection. This paper describes and analyses the experience of a research project that used mobile phones to collect high frequency, quantitative economic data from households in rural Tanzania. I discuss the research design, highlight some of the mistakes made and lessons learned, and speculate on the applicability of this method in other settings.