Authors
Lori Beaman, Andrew Dillon
Publication date
2012/5/1
Journal
Journal of Development Economics
Volume
98
Issue
1
Pages
124-135
Publisher
North-Holland
Description
Household definitions used in multi-topic household surveys vary between surveys but have potentially significant implications for household composition, production, and poverty statistics. Standard definitions of the household usually include some intersection of keywords relating to residency requirements, common food consumption, and intermingling of income or production decisions. Despite best practices intending to standardize the definition of the household, it is unclear which types of definitions or which intersections of keywords in a definition result in different household compositions. This paper conducts a randomized survey experiment of four different household definitions in Mali to examine the implications for household-level statistics. This approach permits analysis of the trade-offs between alternative definition types. We find that additional keywords in definitions increase rather than decrease …
Total citations
Scholar articles
L Beaman, A Dillon - Journal of Development Economics, 2012
L Beaman, A Dillon - Results from a randomized survey experiment in Mali, 2010