Not Your Average Job : Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania
A good understanding of the constraints on agricultural growth in Africa relies on the accurate measurement of smallholder labor. Yet, serious weaknesses in these statistics persist. The extent of bias in smallholder labor data is examined by condu...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26610928/not-your-average-job-measuring-farm-labor-tanzania http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24854 |
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okr-10986-248542021-04-23T14:04:27Z Not Your Average Job : Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania Arthi, Vellore Beegle, Kathleen De Weerdt, Joachim Palacios-López, Amparo recall error measurement error farm labor agricultural productivity survey bias survey design A good understanding of the constraints on agricultural growth in Africa relies on the accurate measurement of smallholder labor. Yet, serious weaknesses in these statistics persist. The extent of bias in smallholder labor data is examined by conducting a randomized survey experiment among farming households in rural Tanzania. Agricultural labor estimates obtained through weekly surveys are compared with the results of reporting in a single end-of-season recall survey. The findings show strong evidence of recall bias: people in traditional recall-style modules report working up to four times as many hours per person-plot relative to those reporting labor on a weekly basis. If hours are aggregated to the household level, however, this discrepancy disappears, a factor driven by the underreporting by recall households of people and plots active in agricultural work. The evidence suggests that these competing forms of recall bias are driven not only by failures in memory, but also by the mental burdens of reporting on highly variable agricultural work patterns to provide a typical estimate. All things equal, studies suffering from this bias would understate agricultural labor productivity. 2016-08-09T21:56:23Z 2016-08-09T21:56:23Z 2016-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26610928/not-your-average-job-measuring-farm-labor-tanzania http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24854 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7773 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Tanzania |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
recall error measurement error farm labor agricultural productivity survey bias survey design |
| spellingShingle |
recall error measurement error farm labor agricultural productivity survey bias survey design Arthi, Vellore Beegle, Kathleen De Weerdt, Joachim Palacios-López, Amparo Not Your Average Job : Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Tanzania |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7773 |
| description |
A good understanding of the constraints
on agricultural growth in Africa relies on the accurate
measurement of smallholder labor. Yet, serious weaknesses in
these statistics persist. The extent of bias in smallholder
labor data is examined by conducting a randomized survey
experiment among farming households in rural Tanzania.
Agricultural labor estimates obtained through weekly surveys
are compared with the results of reporting in a single
end-of-season recall survey. The findings show strong
evidence of recall bias: people in traditional recall-style
modules report working up to four times as many hours per
person-plot relative to those reporting labor on a weekly
basis. If hours are aggregated to the household level,
however, this discrepancy disappears, a factor driven by the
underreporting by recall households of people and plots
active in agricultural work. The evidence suggests that
these competing forms of recall bias are driven not only by
failures in memory, but also by the mental burdens of
reporting on highly variable agricultural work patterns to
provide a typical estimate. All things equal, studies
suffering from this bias would understate agricultural labor productivity. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Arthi, Vellore Beegle, Kathleen De Weerdt, Joachim Palacios-López, Amparo |
| author_facet |
Arthi, Vellore Beegle, Kathleen De Weerdt, Joachim Palacios-López, Amparo |
| author_sort |
Arthi, Vellore |
| title |
Not Your Average Job : Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania |
| title_short |
Not Your Average Job : Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania |
| title_full |
Not Your Average Job : Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania |
| title_fullStr |
Not Your Average Job : Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Not Your Average Job : Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania |
| title_sort |
not your average job : measuring farm labor in tanzania |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2016 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26610928/not-your-average-job-measuring-farm-labor-tanzania http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24854 |
| _version_ |
1764457828327620608 |