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Understanding Economic Behavior Using Open-ended Survey Data

Author

Listed:
  • Ingar K. Haaland
  • Christopher Roth
  • Stefanie Stantcheva
  • Johannes Wohlfart

Abstract

We survey the recent literature in economics using open-ended survey data to uncover mechanisms behind economic beliefs and behaviors. We first provide an overview of different applications, including the measurement of motives, mental models, narratives, attention, information transmission, and recall. We next describe different ways of eliciting open-ended responses, including single-item open-ended questions, speech recordings, and AI-powered qualitative interviews. Subsequently, we discuss methods to annotate and analyze such data with a focus on recent advances in large language models. Our review concludes with a discussion of promising avenues for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Ingar K. Haaland & Christopher Roth & Stefanie Stantcheva & Johannes Wohlfart, 2024. "Understanding Economic Behavior Using Open-ended Survey Data," NBER Working Papers 32421, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32421
    Note: DEV EFG LS ME PE POL
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    Cited by:

    1. Sebastian Link & Andreas Peichl & Oliver Pfäuti & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2023. "Attention to the Macroeconomy," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 256, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    2. Blesse, Sebastian & Gruendler, Klaus & Heil, Philipp & Hermes, Henning, 2025. "The demand for economic narratives," ZEW Discussion Papers 25-054, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. Galasso, Vincenzo & Nannicini, Tommaso & Nozza, Debora, 2024. "We Need to Talk: Audio Surveys and Information Extraction," IZA Discussion Papers 17488, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Lea Best & Benjamin Born & Manuel Menkhoff, 2025. "The Impact of Interest: Firms' Investment Sensitivity to Interest Rates," CESifo Working Paper Series 12167, CESifo.
    5. Leonardo Bursztyn & Ingar Haaland & Nicolas Röver & Christopher Roth & Ingar K. Haaland, 2025. "The Social Desirability Atlas," CESifo Working Paper Series 11911, CESifo.
    6. Duraj, Kamila & Laudenbach, Christine & Lindner, Vincent, 2025. "Hessenmonitor Finanzkompetenz: Was wissen junge Erwachsene in Hessen über Geld und Finanzen? Abschlussbericht," SAFE White Paper Series 110, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    7. Bocar A. Ba & Abdoulaye Ndiaye & Roman G. Rivera & Alexander Whitefield, 2024. "Mispricing Narratives after Social Unrest," CESifo Working Paper Series 11264, CESifo.
    8. Jianhao Lin & Lexuan Sun & Yixin Yan, 2025. "Simulating Macroeconomic Expectations using LLM Agents," Papers 2505.17648, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2025.
    9. Schnorpfeil, Philip & Weber, Michael & Hackethal, Andreas, 2025. "Inflation and Trading," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    10. Preuss, Marcel & Reyes, Germán & Somerville, Jason & Wu, Joy, 2025. "Are Elites Meritocratic and Efficiency-Seeking? Evidence from MBA Students," IZA Discussion Papers 17788, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Dzung Bui & Bernd Hayo, 2025. "Inflation Expectations of the General Public under Supply Constraints: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202520, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    12. Björn Bartling & Krishna Srinivasan, 2025. "Paternalistic Interventions: Determinants of Demand and Supply," CESifo Working Paper Series 11886, CESifo.
    13. Francesco Capozza & Krishna Srinivasan & Mattie Toma, 2025. "Science by Consensus: Eliciting Citizens’ and Experts’ R&D Spending Priorities," CESifo Working Paper Series 12235, CESifo.
    14. Jacob Carlson, 2025. "Making Interpretable Discoveries from Unstructured Data: A High-Dimensional Multiple Hypothesis Testing Approach," Papers 2511.01680, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2026.
    15. Thomas F. Crossley & Peter Levell & Sofía Sierra Vásquez, 2024. "What would you do with £500? (...in your own words)," IFS Working Papers W24/38, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    16. Zhi Hao Lim, 2025. "To Each Their Own: Heterogeneity in Worker Preferences for Peer Information," Papers 2508.06162, arXiv.org.
    17. Bruttel, Lisa & Nithammer, Juri, 2025. "Opinion Piece: How to pre-register experimental studies that involve machine learning for text data analysis," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    18. Björn Bartling & Krishna Srinivasan, 2025. "Paternalistic interventions: determinants of demand and supply," ECON - Working Papers 469, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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