[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-113192-en":3,"doc-seo-113192-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},113192,4398048949847,"Eliana","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/400002536579ef2da7f?_k=1778318612642679267",8,"Research & Report","Method Matters - The Underreporting of Intimate Partner Violence","This paper analyzes the magnitude and predictors of misreporting on intimate partner violence. Women in Nigeria were randomly assigned to answer questions using an indirect list experiment method that provides anonymity, or a standard direct face-to-face method. IPV rates were up to 35% higher under the list method. Misreporting correlates with indicators commonly targeted by empowerment and development programs, such as education and vulnerability, implying that conventional surveys can underestimate prevalence and distort relationships and treatment effects.","Pub lic Disclosure Authorized Pub lic Disclosure Authorized  \nThe World Bank Economic Review, 37(1), 2023, 49–73  \n[https://doi.org10.1093/wber/lhac022](https://doi.org10.1093/wber/lhac022)  \nArticle  \nMethod Matters: The Underreporting of Intimate Partner Violence  \nClaire Cullen  \nAbstract  \nThis paper analyzes the magnitude and predictors of misreporting on intimate partner violence. Women in Nigeria were randomly assigned to answer questions using either an indirect method (list experiment) that gives respondents anonymity, or the standard, direct face-to-face method. Intimate partner violence rates were up to 35 percent greater when measured using the list method than the direct method. Misreporting was associated with indicators often targeted in empowerment and development programs, such as education and vulnerability. These results suggest that standard survey methods may generate significant underestimates of the prevalence of intimate partner violence, and biased correlations and treatment effect estimates.  \nJEL classification: C83, J12, J16, K42, O15  \nKeywords: gender, intimate partner violence, measurement, Nigeria  \n1. Introduction  \nIt is challenging to accurately measure sensitive attitudes, behaviors, and experiences such as political preferences, prejudice, risky sex, and intimate partner violence (IPV) . Often, researchers and policy makers must rely on self-reported survey data, yet such data may not be accurate. For sensitive topics in particular, there are many reasons why survey respondents may be reluctant to tell the truth, including a fear of  \nClaire Cullen is postdoctoral research fellow from the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford; her email address is [claire.cullen@bsg.ox.ac.uk. The](claire.cullen@bsg.ox.ac.uk. The) impact evaluations through which these data were collected were conducted by the World Bank Africa Region Gender Innovation Lab and were funded by the World Bank’s Nordic Trust Fund, the Swiss Development Cooperation, and the Government of Rwanda, and in Nigeria by USAID and the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality, a World Bank Group multi-donor trust fund. The views presented in this paper are those of the author and do not represent those of the World Bank or its member countries. I gratefully acknowledge support from the Blavatnik School of Government, Fund for Women Graduates, and Graduate Women International. I would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback, as well as Julien Labonne, Stefan Dercon, Arthur Alik-Lagrange, Noam Angrist, Dara Kay Cohen, Cheryl Doss, Patricia Fernandes, Markus Goldstein, Harald Hinkel, Eliana La Ferrara, Summer Lindsey, Anandi Mani, Sreelakshmi Papineni, Rachael Pierotti, Simon Quinn, Diana Contreras Suarez, Alex Twahirwa, Julia Vaillant, Marc Witte, and seminar participants at the World Bank Africa Region Gender Innovation Lab, Oxford CSAE, IFPRI, UC Berkeley, Yale EGEN, Australian Gender Economics Workshop, Kigali Impact Hub, and SVRI for helpful comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank the respondents for generously giving their time, and the staff at Laterite Ltd. in Rwanda and TNS Global in Nigeria, and Victoria Isika, Jean Paul Ngabonziza, Maritetou Sanogo, and Oluwatoyin Zakariya for their superb research assistance and data collection work. All remaining errors are my own. This study was approved by the Oxford University Central University Research Ethics Committee, HML IRB, and the Rwandan National Ethics Committee. This paper was previously circulated under the title “Method Matters: Underreporting of Intimate Partner Violence in Nigeria and Rwanda.” A supplementary online appendix is available with this article at The World Bank Economic Review website.  \n© The Author(s) 2022 . Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / THE WORLD BANK. 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