IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pas/papers/2022-08.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Problems with recording the spread of COVID-19 in developing countries: Evidence from a phone survey in Indonesia

Author

Listed:
  • Budy P. Resosudarmo
  • Rus'an Nasrudin
  • Pyan A. Muchtar
  • Usep Nugraha
  • Anna Falentina

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic governments in developing countries tended to underestimate the actual spread of the pandemic due to limited number of tests. To provide alternative to the government announced COVID-19 figures, many non-governmental agencies/individuals used various methods to gather data on the spread of the pandemic. One of the methods applied is phone survey approach of directly asking respondents whether they are infected and how the sickness impacts on their livelihood. This paper focuses on evaluating the reliability and usefulness of this approach by carefully conducting a phone survey on our own. The findings suggest that by developing a careful algorithm, a phone survey might be able to provide a better estimate than those announced by the government in developing countries where capabilities of conducting COVID-19 test are limited. Nevertheless, our findings also reveal that the reliability of a phone survey could be low when the response rate is too low.

Suggested Citation

  • Budy P. Resosudarmo & Rus'an Nasrudin & Pyan A. Muchtar & Usep Nugraha & Anna Falentina, 2022. "Problems with recording the spread of COVID-19 in developing countries: Evidence from a phone survey in Indonesia," Departmental Working Papers 2022-08, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pas:papers:2022-08
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://acde.crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publication/acde_crawford_anu_edu_au/2022-07/acde_td_resusudarmo_et_al_20222_08_1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Siddharth Chandra, 2013. "Mortality from the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 in Indonesia," Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 67(2), pages 185-193, July.
    2. Osuke Komazawa & Ni Wayan Suriastini & Ika Yulia Wijayanti & Maliki & Dinar Dana Kharisma, 2021. "Older People and COVID-19 in Indonesia," Books, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), number 978-602-5460-31-9 edited by Osuke Komazawa & Ni Wayan Suriastini & Ika Yulia Wijayanti & Maliki & Dinar Dana Kharisma, July.
    3. Anna T. Falentina & Budy P. Resosudarmo & Danang Darmawan & Eny Sulistyaningrum, 2021. "Digitalisation and the Performance of Micro and Small Enterprises in Yogyakarta, Indonesia," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 343-369, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierre van der Eng, 2024. "Mortality from the 1944-1945 famine in Java, Indonesia," CEH Discussion Papers 01, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    2. Gallardo-Albarrán, Daniel & de Zwart, Pim, 2021. "A bitter epidemic: The impact of the 1918 influenza on sugar production in Java," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    3. Aloysius Gunadi Brata & Eusebius Pantja Pramudya & Esther Sri Astuti & Heffi Christya Rahayu & Heronimus Heron, 2021. "COVID-19 and Socio-Economic Inequalities in Indonesia: A Subnational-level Analysis," Working Papers DP-2021-04, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    4. Brata, Aloysius Gunadi & Triandaru, Sigit & Patnasari, Yenny & Setyastuti, Rini & Sutarta, Agustinus Edi & Sukamto, Andreas, 2022. "The Spanish Flu Pandemic and Income Distribution in Java: Lessons from the 1920s," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 56(3), pages 103-117.
    5. Doran, Áine & Colvin, Christopher L. & McLaughlin, Eoin, 2024. "What can we learn from historical pandemics? A systematic review of the literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    6. Adriana Grigorescu & Elena Pelinescu & Amalia Elena Ion & Monica Florica Dutcas, 2021. "Human Capital in Digital Economy: An Empirical Analysis of Central and Eastern European Countries from the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-21, February.
    7. Sebastian Vollmer & Juditha Wójcik, 2017. "The long-term consequences of the global 1918 influenza pandemic: A systematic analysis of 117 IPUMS international census data sets," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 242, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    8. Pierre van der Eng, 2023. "Mortality from the influenza pandemic of 1918-19 in Indonesia," Departmental Working Papers 2023-06, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    9. Siddharth Chandra & Yan-Liang Yu, 2015. "The 1918 influenza pandemic and subsequent birth deficit in Japan," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(11), pages 313-326.
    10. Afriyadi Cahyadi & Taufiq Marwa & István Hágen & Mohammed Nuru Siraj & Parama Santati & József Poór & Katalin Szabó, 2022. "Leadership Styles, High-Involvement Human Resource Management Practices, and Individual Employee Performance in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Digital Era," Economies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    11. Richard B. Freeman, 2022. "Planning for the “Expected Unexpected”: Work and Retirement in the U.S. After the COVID-19 Pandemic Shock," NBER Working Papers 29653, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Indonesia; COVID-19 pandemic; phone survey; developing countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pas:papers:2022-08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Prema-chandra Athukorala (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/asanuau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.