%0 Report
        %A Crépon, Bruno
%A Elsayed, Ahmed
%A Gazeaud, Jules
        %T Unbiased and Accurate: Measuring Sensitive Outcomes Through Ballot-Bag Surveys
        %D 2025
        %8 2025 Aug
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 18072
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18072
        %X Prevailing methods for measuring sensitive outcomes confront researchers with an inherent bias-variance trade-off: direct questioning is prone to a sensitivity bias, while indirect methods such as list experiments are substantially less precise. We introduce the ballot-bag, a novel technique that relaxes this trade-off by mitigating bias in direct questioning while improving precision over indirect methods. In a field experiment in Egypt, where direct questions on irregular migration are biased, ballot-bag estimates closely align with those from a list experiment but exhibit significantly lower variance. Consequently, treatment effects are highly significant via the ballot-bag and not via the list experiment.
        %K sensitivity bias
%K field experiments
%K survey methods
%K sensitive behaviors
%K irregular migration