Measuring Employment : Experimental Evidence from Urban Ghana
Using a randomized survey experiment in urban Ghana, this paper demonstrates that the length of the reference period and the interview modality (in person or over the phone) affect how people respond in labor surveys, with impacts varying markedly...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/335911591019051628/Measuring-Employment-Experimental-Evidence-from-Urban-Ghana http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33847 |
| Summary: | Using a randomized survey experiment in
urban Ghana, this paper demonstrates that the length of the
reference period and the interview modality (in person or
over the phone) affect how people respond in labor surveys,
with impacts varying markedly by job type. Survey
participants report significantly more self-employment
spells when the reference period is shorter than the
traditional one week, with the impacts concentrated among
those in home-based and mobile self-employment. In contrast,
there is no impact of the reference period on the incidence
of wage employment. The wage employed report working fewer
days and hours when confronted with a shorter reference
period. Finally, interviews conducted on the phone yield
lower estimates of employment, hours worked, and days worked
among the self-employed who are working from home or a
mobile location as compared with in-person interviews. |
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