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    The Limitations of Household Surveys: Methodological Considerations in the Selection of the Unit of Analysis
    The Limitations of Household Surveys: Methodological Considerations in the Selection of the Unit of Analysis
    The Limitations of Household Surveys: Methodological Considerations in the Selection of the Unit of Analysis
    Ebook35 pages22 minutes

    The Limitations of Household Surveys: Methodological Considerations in the Selection of the Unit of Analysis

    By Rodolfo Tello

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    One of the most widely used methods of socioeconomic data collection employed by international development and environmental conservation organizations is household surveys. The information gathered in such surveys is frequently used to support a variety of arguments, but the methodological aspects of these surveys are rarely discussed. The anthropological literature on households, however, has extensively shown the variability and complexity of the definition and conformation of households, questioning their adequacy as a unit of statistical analysis in survey research. This short book further explores this issue by analyzing the implications of household variability on the data collection procedures and the accuracy of survey measurements that use the household as a unit of analysis. Taking as a reference the composition of households in three indigenous communities located in the Peruvian rainforest, this book illustrates how the high variability of households decreases the value of household surveys, providing methodological insights and practical considerations to take into account when defining the unit of analysis in socioeconomic studies that involve the use of surveys.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAmakella Publishing
    Release dateJun 28, 2016
    ISBN9781633870307
    The Limitations of Household Surveys: Methodological Considerations in the Selection of the Unit of Analysis
    Author

    Rodolfo Tello

    Rodolfo Tello is an anthropologist who has worked extensively in different countries of Latin America on issues such as social development, indigenous peoples and environmental conservation. He conducted research with the Wachiperi, Awajún, Nahua, and Quechua-Lamista of the Peruvian rainforest. He also worked implementing the social safeguard policies of a large multilateral organization in countries such as Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, Ecuador, Bahamas and Suriname. He holds a PhD in anthropology from American University and has a master's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. He was a Fulbright scholar and currently works as a consultant for an international development organization. He is also a general aviation pilot and occasionally teaches university classes on cultural anthropology. Additional information about recent and upcoming publications by the author may be found at www.rodolfotello.com Check it out!

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      Book preview

      The Limitations of Household Surveys - Rodolfo Tello

      Introduction

      The household is frequently considered as the default unit of statistical analysis in many socioeconomic studies conducted at the international level. An example for the case of development is the Living Standards Measurement Study Survey, established by the World Bank to foster increased use of household data as a basis for policy decision-making. These surveys are intended to produce comprehensive measures of consumption, income, and a variety of issues as a means of assessing how households behave in response to changes in the economic environment or government programs (Grosh and Muñoz 1996: 4, 419). Another example related to environmental conservation is a study intended to assess the effects of protected areas on human welfare in Gabon, tracking the welfare of 1,000 households that traditionally have used protected area resources and comparing their livelihoods with those of an equal sample of control households (Wilkie et al. 2006: 248). In a similar way, a study in Vietnam sought to assess the way cash incentives encouraged upland farmers to forgo clear-cutting of forests by conducting surveys among households (Ferraro and Pattanayak 2006: 484).

      A common factor in these types of studies is that they do not discuss the adequacy of the household as the unit of analysis in the specific sociocultural context in which they are applied. These surveys take it for granted that the household is usually the most appropriate unit of analysis, regardless of their variability. By doing so, however, these studies might be contributing to the reproduction of a narrative that legitimates their research results based more on issues of public credibility than on empirical evidence.

      This situation is particularly significant because the anthropological literature on households has been consistently showing that the household is a highly complex entity. This complexity is reflected in the way of conceptualizing the household and in

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