Brief

Not Your Average Job: Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania: Policy Brief No. 6

author(s) Arthi, V. - Beegle, K. - De Weerdt, J. - Palacios-Lopez, A.
from UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)
permalink open
themes
regions
  • Eastern Africa
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Africa
  • World
citation

Vellore Arthi, Kathleen Beegle, Joachim De Weerdt, Amparo Palacios-Lopez (2017). Not Your Average Job: Measuring Farm Labor in Tanzania. GLMLIC Policy Brief No. 6. Available at: https://g2lm lic.iza.org/publications/pb/pb6/

Publications and datasets provided via GARDIAN

Abstract

The extent of bias in smallholder farm labor data is examined by conducting a randomized survey experiment amongst farming households in rural Tanzania. Benchmark agricultural labor estimates obtained from weekly surveys are compared to those from a traditional single end-of-season recall survey. Traditional recall-style modules overestimate hours worked per person per plot by a factor of 3.4. This recall bias is driven by the mental burdens of reporting on highly variable agricultural work patterns. All things equal, studies suffering from this bias would understate agricultural labor productivity. This research is part of the Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries programme

Open original