effect is especially pronounced for agricultural activities and, to a lesser extent, for casual labor. More than 75% of the population worked in agriculture in the past 12 months, but less than 40% did so in the last seven days. These results are similar for women and men. However, labor market statistics of young people are more sensitive to the choice of the reference period. Considering someone employed if he engaged in at least one activity, the employment rate of the population aged 15 to 24 increases from 50% to 82% if a long rather than a short reference period is used, compared to an increase from 74% to 95% for the population aged 25 to 64. The share of young people in agriculture is particularly sensitive to the reference period. Like in Uganda, this finding suggests that seasonality affects young people more than the rest of the population.

# 4.4. Self‐reports or response by proxy

Questions about employment can be asked directly to each household member or to a single informed household member, often the household head, who reports for all household members. Both approaches are common. The literature often recommends self‐reporting as best practice (Benes & Walsh, 2018a), mainly because self‐reports are believed to be more accurate. Indeed, proxy respondents may not be aware of all activities carried out by all family members, particularly in extended families, or may have an incentive to under‐ or overreport specific activities of certain household members (Blair et al., 2004). At the same time, interviewing each household member rather than a single respondent is burdensome for the enumerators and respondents, and may increase non‐response (Thomsen & Villund, 2011). In order to facilitate fieldwork, many surveys therefore aim to minimize the level of proxy reporting, but do not prohibit it. A comprehensive ILO review of LFS shows that in half of the LFS 30% to 50% of the responses are provided by proxy informants (ILO, 2018d). The DHS is in that sense an exception because it administers a separate men’s and women’s questionnaire and interviews each household member aged 15 to 49. Interestingly, men’s employment status and main occupation is self‐reported (in the men’s questionnaire), but also reported by their wife in the women’s questionnaires.

The LSMS reference work and enumerator manuals recommend self‐reporting, but do not require it (Grosh & Glewwe, 2000, chapter 9). The enumerator records by whom the questions are answered. Although self‐reporting is preferred, proxy reporting is common in practice (Table 3). The rate of proxy respondents for the age group 15 to 64 ranges from 24% in Nigeria and Tanzania to 85% in Mali. Although there are some exceptions (such as Mali and Niger), the results indicate that the proxy respondent is usually a male household member, especially for youth.

The findings raise the question whether and how proxy reporting affects labor market statistics and whether the effect of proxy reporting differs by age and sex of the subject and respondent.<sup>19</sup> Using a survey experiment in Tanzania, Bardasi et al. (2011) show that proxy

> 19 A distinct question is whether household members who self‐report their employment status differ systematically from household members whose status is reported by proxy respondents. In Malawi, for instance, the self‐reported (fe)male employment rate was 79% (65%), whereas the (fe)male employment of individuals who did not self‐report was 63% (50%)

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