@techreport{fdi:010065746, title = {{A}re female employment statistics more sensitive than male ones to questionnaire design ? {E}vidence from {C}ameroon, {M}ali and {S}enegal}, author = {{C}omblon, {V}irginie and {R}obilliard, {A}nne-{S}ophie}, editor = {}, language = {{ENG}}, abstract = {{T}his paper investigates the eect of several survey questionnaire characteristics on em- ployment statistics. {I}t also assess the dierences in sensitivity to survey design across gender and living area. {I}ndeed, as suggested in the literature, women, especially those living in rural areas, are expected to be more sensitive than men to survey design, due to both the nature of the work (seasonal, occasional, temporary, informal, unpaid family work) and social norms. {I}n many {A}frican countries, labor force surveys are not available on a regular basis and the way existing household surveys and census measure employment diers greatly, both over time and between countries. {T}his makes it dicult to properly study labor market dynamics and to draw meaningful policy recommendations. {U}sing about fty surveys and censuses collected in {C}ameroon, {M}ali and {S}enegal between 1976 and 2012, we rst review the diver- sity of survey instruments used and highlight the key questionnaire characteristics that are likely to aect employment statistics. {E}xploiting within-survey variations of the wording of questions, the detail of the labor module and the length of the reference period, we then assess the eect of these features on labor statistics. {E}mpirical results shows signi cant eects of each questionnaire feature and suggest that women are not systematically more sensitive than men to survey design, nor is it the case for rural individuals compared to urban ones.}, keywords = {{MARCHE} {DU} {TRAVAIL} ; {ENQUETE} {STATISTIQUE} ; {RELATION} {DE} {GENRE} ; {TRAVAIL} {DES} {FEMMES} ; {ANALYSE} {STATISTIQUE} ; {ETUDE} {COMPARATIVE} ; {POPULATION} {URBAINE} ; {POPULATION} {RURALE} ; {CAMEROUN} ; {MALI} ; {SENEGAL}}, address = {{P}aris}, publisher = {{DIAL}}, series = {{D}ocuments de {T}ravail - {DIAL}}, pages = {58 multigr.}, year = {2015}, URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010065746}, }