Gender Bias in Agricultural Child Labor : Evidence from Survey Design Experiments

Galdo, Jose ; Dammert, Ana C. ; Abebaw, Degnet

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: SURVEY DESIGN;    FARM LABOR;    GENDER;    CHILD LABOR;    LABOR STATISTICS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-9410
RP-ID  :  WPS9410

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Agricultural labor accounts for thelargest share of child labor worldwide. Yet, measurement offarm labor statistics is challenging due to its inherentseasonality, variable and irregular work schedules, and thevarying saliences of individuals' work activities. Theproblem is further complicated by the presence of widespreadgender stratification of work and social lives. This studyreports the findings of three randomized survey designinterventions over the agricultural coffee calendar in ruralEthiopia to address whether response by proxy rather thanself-report has effects on the measurement of child laborstatistics within and across seasons. While the estimates donot report differences for boys across all seasons, theanalysis shows sizable self/proxy discrepancies in childlabor statistics for girls. Overall, the results highlightconcerns on the use of survey proxy respondents inagricultural labor, particularly for girls. The mainfindings have important implications for policymakers aboutdata collection in rural areas in developing countries.