Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/39808 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 39
Publisher: 
Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Zentrum für Internationale Entwicklungs- und Umweltforschung (ZEU), Giessen
Abstract: 
Survey data are potentially affected by cheating interviewers. Even a small number of fabricated interviews might seriously impair the results of further empirical analysis. Besides reinterviews some statistical approaches have been proposed for identifying fabrication of interviews. As a novel toolin this context, cluster and discriminant analysis are used. Several indicators are combined to classify 'at risk' interviewers based solely on the collected data. An application to a dataset with known cases of cheating interviewers demonstrates that the methods are able to identify the cheating interviewers with a high probability. The multivariate classiffication is superior to the application of a singleindicator such as Benford's law.
Subjects: 
cheating interviewers
Benford's law
cluster analysis
data fabrication
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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