Abstract
Understanding the tradeoffs in improving the precision of agricultural measures through survey design is crucial. Yet, standard indicators used to determine program effectiveness may be flawed, and at a differential rate for men and women. We use a household survey from Mozambique to estimate the measurement error from male and female self-reports of their adoption and knowledge of three practices: intercropping, mulching, and strip tillage. Despite clear differences in human and physical capital, there are no obvious differences in the knowledge, adoption, and error in self-reporting between men and women. Having received training unanimously lowers knowledge misreports and increases adoption misreports. Other determinants of reporting error differ by gender. Misreporting is positively associated with a greater number of plots for men. Recall decay on measures of knowledge appears prominent among men but not women. Findings from regression and cost-effectiveness analyses always favor the collection of objective measures of knowledge. Given the lowest rate of accuracy for adoption was around 80%, costlier objective adoption measures are recommended for a subsample in regions with heterogeneous farm sizes.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 449-462 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Agricultural Economics (United Kingdom) |
Volume | 46 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 1 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Agriculture
- Gender
- Measurement error
- Objective adoption
- Objective knowledge
- Self-reported adoption
- Self-reported knowledge
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agronomy and Crop Science
- Economics and Econometrics