Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania

Labor market statistics are critical for assessing and understanding economic development. However, widespread variation exists in how labor statistics are collected in household surveys. This paper analyzes the effects of alternative survey design on employment statistics by implementing a randomiz...

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Main Authors:	Bardasi, Elena, Beegle, Kathleen, Dillon, Andrew, Serneels, Pieter
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	World Bank 2013
Subjects:	child labor employee employment employment rates employment status female employment female labor female labor force Household Survey household surveys labor force labor force participation Labor market Labor Statistics Labour Labour Force unemployment unemployment duration wage employment workers
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13483

id	okr-10986-13483
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-134832021-04-23T14:03:08Z Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania Bardasi, Elena Beegle, Kathleen Dillon, Andrew Serneels, Pieter child labor employee employment employment rates employment status female employment female labor female labor force Household Survey household surveys labor force labor force participation Labor market Labor Statistics Labour Labour Force unemployment unemployment duration wage employment workers Labor market statistics are critical for assessing and understanding economic development. However, widespread variation exists in how labor statistics are collected in household surveys. This paper analyzes the effects of alternative survey design on employment statistics by implementing a randomized survey experiment in Tanzania. Two features of the survey design are assessed – the level of detail of the employment questions and the type of respondent. It turns out that both features have relevant and statistically significant effects on employment statistics. Using a short labor module without screening questions induces many individuals to adopt a broad definition of employment, incorrectly including domestic duties. But after reclassifying those in domestic work as ‘not working’ in order to obtain the correct ILO classification, the short module turns out to generate lower female employment rates, higher working hours for both men and women who are employed, and lower rates of wage employment than the detailed module. Response by proxy rather than self-report has no effect on female labor statistics but yields substantially lower male employment rates, mostly due to underreporting of agricultural activity. The large impacts of proxy responses on male employment rates are attenuated when proxy informants are spouses and individuals with some schooling. 2013-05-21T14:03:01Z 2013-05-21T14:03:01Z 2011-10-18 Journal Article World Bank Economic Review 1564-698X doi:10.1093/wber/lhr022 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13483 en_US World Bank Economic Review;25(3) CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank Journal Article Tanzania
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	child labor employee employment employment rates employment status female employment female labor female labor force Household Survey household surveys labor force labor force participation Labor market Labor Statistics Labour Labour Force unemployment unemployment duration wage employment workers
spellingShingle	child labor employee employment employment rates employment status female employment female labor female labor force Household Survey household surveys labor force labor force participation Labor market Labor Statistics Labour Labour Force unemployment unemployment duration wage employment workers Bardasi, Elena Beegle, Kathleen Dillon, Andrew Serneels, Pieter Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania
geographic_facet	Tanzania
relation	World Bank Economic Review;25(3)
description	Labor market statistics are critical for assessing and understanding economic development. However, widespread variation exists in how labor statistics are collected in household surveys. This paper analyzes the effects of alternative survey design on employment statistics by implementing a randomized survey experiment in Tanzania. Two features of the survey design are assessed – the level of detail of the employment questions and the type of respondent. It turns out that both features have relevant and statistically significant effects on employment statistics. Using a short labor module without screening questions induces many individuals to adopt a broad definition of employment, incorrectly including domestic duties. But after reclassifying those in domestic work as ‘not working’ in order to obtain the correct ILO classification, the short module turns out to generate lower female employment rates, higher working hours for both men and women who are employed, and lower rates of wage employment than the detailed module. Response by proxy rather than self-report has no effect on female labor statistics but yields substantially lower male employment rates, mostly due to underreporting of agricultural activity. The large impacts of proxy responses on male employment rates are attenuated when proxy informants are spouses and individuals with some schooling.
format	Journal Article
author	Bardasi, Elena Beegle, Kathleen Dillon, Andrew Serneels, Pieter
author_facet	Bardasi, Elena Beegle, Kathleen Dillon, Andrew Serneels, Pieter
author_sort	Bardasi, Elena
title	Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania
title_short	Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania
title_full	Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania
title_fullStr	Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania
title_full_unstemmed	Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania
title_sort	do labor statistics depend on how and to whom the questions are asked? results from a survey experiment in tanzania
publisher	World Bank
publishDate	2013
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13483
_version_	1764423598199537664

Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked? Results from a Survey Experiment in Tanzania

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