TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Crépon, Bruno
AU  - Elsayed, Ahmed
AU  - Gazeaud, Jules
        TI  - Unbiased and Accurate: Measuring Sensitive Outcomes Through Ballot-Bag Surveys
        PY  - 2025/Aug/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18072
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18072
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - sensitivity bias
KW  - field experiments
KW  - survey methods
KW  - sensitive behaviors
KW  - irregular migration
        ER  -