@article{ec1588a37f1a4bd49585a57cd916dda4,
title = "Privacy protection, measurement error, and the integration of remote sensing and socioeconomic survey data",
abstract = "When publishing socioeconomic survey data, survey programs implement a variety of statistical methods designed to preserve privacy but which come at the cost of distorting the data. We explore the extent to which spatial anonymization methods to preserve privacy in the large-scale surveys supported by the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) introduce measurement error in econometric estimates when that survey data is integrated with remote sensing weather data. Guided by a pre-analysis plan, we produce 90 linked weather-household datasets that vary by the spatial anonymization method and the remote sensing weather product. By varying the data along with the econometric model we quantify the magnitude and significance of measurement error coming from the loss of accuracy that results from privacy protection measures. We find that spatial anonymization techniques currently in general use have, on average, limited to no impact on estimates of the relationship between weather and agricultural productivity. However, the degree to which spatial anonymization introduces mismeasurement is a function of which remote sensing weather product is used in the analysis. We conclude that care must be taken in choosing a remote sensing weather product when looking to integrate it with publicly available survey data.",
keywords = "Measurement error, Privacy protection, Remote sensing data, Spatial anonymization, Sub-Saharan Africa",
author = "Michler, {Jeffrey D.} and Anna Josephson and Talip Kilic and Siobhan Murray",
note = "Funding Information: A pre-analysis plan for this research has been filed with Open Science Framework (OSF): https://osf.io/8hnz5/ . We gratefully acknowledge funding from the World Bank{\textquoteright}s Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) and Knowledge for Change Program (KCP) . We owe a particular debt to Andrew Dillon, who in several conversations helped us articulate the privacy protection issues in this data and encouraged us to pursue this topic in more depth. This paper has been shaped by conversations with Leah Bevis, Aine McCarthy, and Emilia Tjernstr{\"o}m as well as seminar participants at the 44th BREAD Conference on Development Economics at Northwestern University, the IFAD 2022 conference in Rome, the Nordic Conference in Development Economics 2022 in Helsinki, the Midwest International Development Conference 2022 in Minneapolis, the Centre for the Study of African Economies Conference 2022 held virtually, PacDev 2022 held virtually, and the Methods and Measurement Conference 2021 held virtually. Earlier drafts of this paper were presented under the title “Estimating the Impact of Weather on Agriculture” at the AAEA annual meetings in 2017 in Chicago and in 2019 in Atlanta, the 31st triennial ICAE conference held virtually, and in seminar presentations at Arizona State University, the University of Minnesota, the World Bank, and Virginia Tech. We are especially grateful to Alison Conley, Emil Kee-Tui, and Brian McGreal for their diligent work as research assistants and to Oscar Barriga Cabanillas and Aleksandr Michuda for early help in developing the Stata wxsum package. Funding Information: A pre-analysis plan for this research has been filed with Open Science Framework (OSF): https://osf.io/8hnz5/. We gratefully acknowledge funding from the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) and Knowledge for Change Program (KCP). We owe a particular debt to Andrew Dillon, who in several conversations helped us articulate the privacy protection issues in this data and encouraged us to pursue this topic in more depth. This paper has been shaped by conversations with Leah Bevis, Aine McCarthy, and Emilia Tjernstr{\"o}m as well as seminar participants at the 44th BREAD Conference on Development Economics at Northwestern University, the IFAD 2022 conference in Rome, the Nordic Conference in Development Economics 2022 in Helsinki, the Midwest International Development Conference 2022 in Minneapolis, the Centre for the Study of African Economies Conference 2022 held virtually, PacDev 2022 held virtually, and the Methods and Measurement Conference 2021 held virtually. Earlier drafts of this paper were presented under the title “Estimating the Impact of Weather on Agriculture” at the AAEA annual meetings in 2017 in Chicago and in 2019 in Atlanta, the 31st triennial ICAE conference held virtually, and in seminar presentations at Arizona State University, the University of Minnesota, the World Bank, and Virginia Tech. We are especially grateful to Alison Conley, Emil Kee-Tui, and Brian McGreal for their diligent work as research assistants and to Oscar Barriga Cabanillas and Aleksandr Michuda for early help in developing the Stata wxsum package. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors",
year = "2022",
month = sep,
doi = "10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102927",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "158",
journal = "Journal of Development Economics",
issn = "0304-3878",
publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",
}