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.
Little is known whether these differences have an effect
on the labor statistics they produce. This paper analyzes
these effects by implementing a survey experiment in
Tanzania that varied two key dimensions: the level
of detail of the questions and the type of respondent.
Significant differences are observed across survey designs
with respect to different labor statistics. Labor force
participation rates, for example, vary by as much as 10
percentage points across the four survey assignments.
This paper—a product of the Poverty and Inequality Team, Development Research Group—is part of a larger effort in the
department to improve household survey methods. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://
econ.worldbank.org. The author may be contacted at kbeegle@worldbank.org.
Using a short labor module without screening questions
on employment 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, especially with
the distance in age between respondent and subject
playing an important role, while gender and educational
differences seem less important.