Labor market statistics are critical for assessing and understanding economic development. In practice, widespread variation exists in how labor statistics are measured in household surveys in low-income countries. This paper analyzes these effects by implementing a survey experiment in Tanzania which varied two key dimensions: the level of detail of the questions and the type of respondent. Significant differences in employment statistics are observed across survey designs. Labor force participation rates, for example, vary by as much as 10 percentage points across the four survey assignments. Using a short labor module without screening questions generates lower female labor force participation and lower rates of wage employment for both men and women. Response by proxy rather than self-report yields lower male labor force participation, lower female working hours, and lower employment in agriculture for men. The differences between proxy and self-reporting seem to come from information imperfections within the household, in particular differences in age between respondent and subject.
Presented by:
Elena Bardasi (World bank)
Date & time:
September 20, 2010 3:00 pm - September 20, 2010 4:30 pm
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