Asking Questions to Understand Rural Livelihoods: Comparing Disaggregated vs. Aggregated Approaches to Household Livelihood Questionnaires

This study tests the hypothesis that both disaggregated and aggregated data collection methods produce similar estimates of the relative importance of livelihood portfolio activities and expenditures. The results show that different methods of data collection yield substantively different estimates of livelihood strategies for two indicators: income and expenditure. We also find evidence of a seasonal bias in responses to household livelihood questions asked at higher levels of aggregation. Our findings highlight the challenge of designing household surveys to elicit accurate and precise information, and demonstrate that different methods of data collection influence our understanding of rural livelihoods.