Last updated on June 26, 2011
“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 decreases household size and significantly alters household composition. Definitions emphasizing common consumption or joint production increase estimates of the levels of household assets and consumption statistics, but not on per adult equivalency asset and consumption statistics, relative to open-ended definitions of the household. In contrast, definition type did not affect production statistics in levels, though we observe significant differences in per adult equivalency terms. Our findings suggest that variations in household definition have implications for measuring household welfare and production.”
This is from a paper forthcoming in the Journal of Development Economics by Lori Beaman and my grad school colleague Andrew Dillon. This is very timely, considering that my coauthors and I are about to collect survey data in Mali for our RCT of index insurance.
This is a very relevant question, and leads for example to considering whether you get surveyors to read the same specific definition to all respondents (once you’ve decided on a definition), or whether you ask surveyors to be more flexible, taking the time to discuss a bit more with the respondents and try to reach a mutual, consistent understanding. Some further thoughts on my experiences of this in Mali here:
http://bit.ly/mlpSaC
Thanks for your comment, Stephen. I updated your link because it did not lead to your post when I clicked on it (something about those quotation marks in the URL, I believe…)
The thing is, if you ask enumerators to be more flexible, you get heterogeneous sampling units. This makes interhousehold comparisons difficult, if not impossible. From the point of view of an applied econometrician, I’m afraid it’s better to use a consistent but wrong definition than it is to use a flexible but right definition of household.
Thanks for the feedback Marc, and I appreciate hearing an econometrician point of view (my research is predominantly qualitative).
I’m not trying to say that one definition of ‘household’ is more correct than another – it just seems to me that that respondents can interpret even a ‘fixed’ and consistently-read definition in different ways, so discussing with them in a bit more detail if the first number they have quoted really does all eat together, or farm the same field, or whatever the definition being used (in case they were actually thinking of some people that don’t fit in that definition) might be a way to help address this. So I was trying to say that I’m not arguing for a flexible definition, but rather flexibility in the person asking the question to discuss and check with the respondent that they are both talking about the same thing. This might include acknowledging to each respondent that (a) they might have their own interpretation of ‘household’ but that (b) actually the survey needs to record a consistent definition, defined by the research question.
I also appreciate that this becomes more difficult with larger sample sizes, different enumerators etc – I’m working with much smaller samples than you I imagine.
I see what you mean now, and I agree that greater care should be given to explaining to respondents what we (or the many enumerators) mean by “household.” Thanks for the clarification! If you are interested in this topic, Sylvie Lambert, at the Paris School of Economics, looks at similar topics. I remember her presenting a paper on various groups within households in Senegal. That said, if we’re ever in Bamako at the same time, it’d be nice to get together for a chat.
Thanks for the other link – I’ll be based in Bamako til November this year and back for at least a bit in 2012 I hope – maybe see you there sometime!