Not Your Average Job

dc.creatorArthi, Vellore
dc.creatorBeegle, Kathleen
dc.creatorDe Weerdt, Joachim
dc.creatorPalacios-López, Amparo
dc.date2018-02-01T20:53:13Z
dc.date2018-02-01T20:53:13Z
dc.date2018-01
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-01T00:41:19Z
dc.descriptionUnderstanding the constraints to 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 reported working up to four times as many hours per person-plot as those reporting labor on a weekly basis. Recall bias manifests both in the intensive and extensive margins of labor reporting: while hours are over-reported in recall, the number of people and plots active in agricultural work are under-reported. The evidence suggests that this recall bias is 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.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierJournal of Development Economics
dc.identifier0304-3878
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10986/29301
dc.identifier10.1596/29301
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/409173
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.rightsCC BY-NC0ND 3.0 IGO
dc.rightshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
dc.rightsWorld Bank
dc.subjectFARM LABOR
dc.subjectAGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
dc.subjectRECALL ERROR
dc.subjectMEASUREMENT ERROR
dc.subjectSURVEYS
dc.subjectREPORTING BIAS
dc.titleNot Your Average Job
dc.titleMeasuring Farm Labor in Tanzania
dc.typeJournal Article
dc.typeArticle de journal
dc.typeArtículo de revista

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