Assessing adult farm labor statistics: Evidence from a survey design experiment in Ethiopia

• Published in: Economics letters 2021-06, Vol.203, p.109836, Article 109836
• Main Authors: Dammert, Ana C., Galdo, Jose
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Employment; Farm labor; Farmworkers; Gender; Labor; Labor market; Labor statistics; Polls & surveys; Productivity measurement; Reliability; Rural areas; Rural communities; Self report; Survey design; Women
• ISSN: 0165-1765; 1873-7374
• DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.109836

Agricultural labor accounts for most of the employment in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, few empirical studies have examined the reliability of farm labor measures emerging from household surveys. In this study, we report the results from a survey design experiment in rural Ethiopia that focus on the effects of survey respondent i.e., proxy vs self-report, on adult farm labor. Our results show that proxy respondents generate lower farm labor statistics relative to self-responses for men but not for women. The magnitude of the impacts for men reaches 3.9 percentage points or 4.3% lower rate of participation relative to the mean participation obtained from the self-report. Our results have implications for the current debate on the measurement of agricultural productivity and the collection of survey data in rural areas of developing settings. •We implement a survey design experiment in Ethiopia for 1197 farming households.•Our random design focuses on comparing proxy vs self-reporting of adult farm labor.•Results show self/proxy gaps in farm labor statistics for men but not for women.•Results have implications for the collection of survey data in poor agricultural settings.