IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2024-64.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What did they say? Respondent identity, question framing, and the measurement of employment

Author

Listed:
  • Rosa Abraham
  • Nishat Anjum
  • Rahul Lahoti
  • Hema Swaminathan

Abstract

Drawing from two labour market experiments in rural India, we offer insights on the influence of survey design on the measurement of employment. The first experiment contrasts self-reported estimates of employment with proxy-reported estimates from spouses. We find that employment estimates based on reports by men underestimate women's employment by six percentage points compared to estimates from women themselves. There are significant differences in the types of employment activities reported by self and proxy.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosa Abraham & Nishat Anjum & Rahul Lahoti & Hema Swaminathan, 2024. "What did they say? Respondent identity, question framing, and the measurement of employment," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2024-64, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2024-64
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2024-64-what-did-they-say-respondent-identity-question-framing-and-measurement-employment.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Deshpande, Ashwini & Kabeer, Naila, 2024. "Norms that matter: Exploring the distribution of women’s work between income generation, expenditure-saving and unpaid domestic responsibilities in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    2. Kate Ambler & Cheryl Doss & Caitlin Kieran & Simone Passarelli, 2021. "He Says, She Says: Spousal Disagreement in Survey Measures of Bargaining Power," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69(2), pages 765-788.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ambler, Kate & Doss, Cheryl & Kieran, Caitlin & Passarelli, Simone, 2022. "Spousal concordance in joint and separate households: Survey evidence from Nepal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    2. Rachel C Voss & Zachary M. Gitonga & Jason Donovan & Mariana Garcia-Medina & Pauline Muindi, 2024. "Can I speak to the manager? The gender dynamics of decision-making in Kenyan maize plots," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(1), pages 205-224, March.
    3. Nyqvist, Martina Björkman & Jayachandran, Seema & Zipfel, Céline, 2024. "A mother’s voice: Impacts of spousal communication training on child health investments," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Genicot, Garance & Hernandez-de-Benito, Maria, 2022. "Women’s land rights and village institutions in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    5. Mwale, Martin Limbikani, 2023. "Do agricultural subsidies matter for women’s attitude towards intimate partner violence? Evidence from Malawi," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    6. Masselus, Lise & Fiala, Nathan, 2024. "Whom to ask? Testing respondent effects in household surveys," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    7. Li, Chao & Sun, Daoming, 2023. "Women’s bargaining power and spending on children’s education: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    8. McCarthy, Aine Seitz & Krause, Brooke, 2024. "Age and Agency: Evidence from a Women’s Empowerment Program in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    9. Ding, Yawen & Wang, Xiaobing & de Brauw, Alan & Qiu, Huanguang, 2024. "Catch up with my husband as I can: Women’s decision-making power consequences of China’s poverty alleviation relocation program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    10. Euler, Michael & Jaleta, Moti & Gartaula, Hom, 2024. "Associations between women’s bargaining power and the adoption of rust-resistant wheat varieties in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    11. Els Lecoutere & Lan Chu, 2024. "Supporting women's empowerment by changing intra‐household decision‐making: A mixed‐methods analysis of a field experiment in rural south‐west Tanzania," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(3), May.
    12. Lecoutere, Els & Spielman, David J. & Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2023. "Empowering women through targeting information or role models: Evidence from an experiment in agricultural extension in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    13. Alaref, Jumana Jamal Subhi & Patil, Aishwarya Shivaji & Rahman, Tasmia & Munoz Boudet, Ana Maria, 2024. "Women’s Labor Force Participation in Nepal : An Exploration of The Role of Social Norms," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10810, The World Bank.
    14. Ding, Yawen & Wang, Xiaobing & Qiu, Huanguang, 2022. "Gift of relocation: Women’s decision making power consequences of China’s poverty alleviation relocation program," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322535, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Mohammed, Feiruz Yimer & Khonje, Makaiko G. & Qaim, Matin, 2024. "Women’s roles in decision-making and nutrition-sensitive agriculture," Sustainable Food Systems Discussion Papers 347962, Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development.
    16. Adá-Lameiras, Alba & Antonovica, Arta & de Esteban Curiel, Javier & Aydogan, Merve, 2024. "The impact of health crisis on sports consumption – A longitudinal study," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    17. Bocci, Corinne & Mishra, Khushbu, 2021. "Forest power: The impact of community forest management on female empowerment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    18. Chen, Jiahui & Liao, Hua & Zhang, Tong, 2024. "Empowering women substantially accelerates the household clean energy transition in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    19. Mehraban, Nadjia & Debela, Bethelhem Legesse & Kalsum, Ummi & Qaim, Matin, 2022. "What about her? Oil palm cultivation and intra-household gender roles," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    20. Aletheia Donald & Cheryl Doss & Markus Goldstein & Sakshi Gupta, 2024. "Sharing responsibility through joint decision-making and implications for intimate-partner violence: evidence from 12 Sub-Saharan African Countries," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 35-66, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2024-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.