Survey-based tools to measure assets and control of income

Agnes R. Quisumbing

IFPRI/A4NH

Content

I. Defining asset-related indicatorsII. Collecting sex-disaggregated data on

assets III. Measuring control of income

I. Defining Asset-related Indicators

• Need to specify what we mean by

– Assets

– “Women’s” assets (assets belonging to women and/or men)

– Asset disparities

– Changes in assets and asset disparities

– Incomes (often difficult to measure), so consumption expenditures often used as proxy

– Decisionmaking over assets and incomes

Page 5

From capitals to assets

Broad definition of assets to include:

• Natural capital

• Physical capital

• Financial capital

• Human capital

• Social capital

• Political capital

Natural capital

Physical capital

Same asset, many capitals

Implications

• Can’t possibly cover all assets so need to think carefully about which ones really matter, given the context

What does it mean to “own” an asset?

Use rights

Types of ownership

Decision rights

Use rights

• Access

• Extraction

• Commercial exploitation

Decision rights

• Management

• Exclusion

• Alienation

• Claims to rights come from multiple sources, and can overlap and change

Sources and security of rights

Implications

• Easy to focus on (and measure) “decision” rights but in some cases “access” rights can be important

• For certain kinds of assets (eg land) may need to include type and security of rights along with quantity and value of asset as part of the indicator

• Contextual information on sources of rights and what can strengthen and weaken them is important for evaluating projects (implementing them!)

Types of owners

• Individuals

• Partners (joint)

• Groups (collective)

Implications

• Need to include joint ownership option in surveys but we need to understand what “joint ownership” means in specific contexts (does it mean name on document only? Does it mean joint decisionmaking on use of asset?)

• Some collectively-owned assets can be “individualized” but others not

How to measure assets & asset changes

• Quantity/quality of specific asset(s)

• Assets index

• Value of assets

• Type or security of rights

Asset disparities• Disparity is the ratio of women’s assets to men’s

assets

• How can the disparity be reduced?– Increase women’s assets– Decrease men’s assets– Increase both, but women’s more

• But remember, changes in rights is not always zero-sum, particularly because of the joint asset category

II. Collecting sex-disaggregated data on assets

• Multiple methods, data sources and sequencing

• Baseline surveys

• Field implementation issues

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Data collection: national and community level

– Use of existing national-level data (DHS, national statistics), administrative data, existing studies

– Focus groups at community level, for example to get at local norms

Page 24

Quantitative methods: household level

• Household and individual surveys, particularly panel surveys

• Take advantage of existing sex-disaggregated data sets and build a panel

Page 25

Qualitative methods

• Ethnography, case studies, life histories

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Q-squared: Integrated qual and quant

• Sequenced and integrated qualitative and quantitative data analysis

– For example, quantitative surveys can be used to draw up the sampling frame for the life histories work or FGDs

How can questionnaire modules can be designed to look at asset accumulation from a gender

perspective?

• In what topics can data collection can be sex-disaggregated?

• How can the same basic question (say, control of land and assets) be adapted to specific contexts, using survey modules on the same topic, but administered in different settings?

• What issues of survey implementation are important?

What does a baseline questionnaire look like?Where can we insert/modify modules to look at gender

issues in a standard household survey?

• Basic baseline information: in RED

• Typical module with sex-disaggregated info ALWAYS collected: purple cells

• Sex-disaggregated info SOMETIMES collected: orange cells

• Specialized module with sex-disaggregated info ALWAYS collected: green cells

Basic and Extended Questionnaire Design of Socio-economic modules

Module Basic? Sex-

disaggregated

information?

About which hh member?

A Roster—very important, since all

Ids in subsequent modules will

come from here

Yes Yes All!

B Education of head and

household members

Yes Yes All

C Nonfood consumption Depends

on focus of

survey, but

ideal

Partly (clothing,

footwear)

All (typically collected at hh

level)

D Food consumption No (but see

section on

nutrition

modules)

All (typically collected at hh

level)

Contents of a household roster

ID Name Sex Age Reln to

head

Marital

Status

Education Main

occupat

ion

1

2

3

4

5

You can also add columns on literacy, migration status, etc.

Socio-economic modules (cont’d)

Module Basic? Sex-

disaggregated

information?

Which hh member?

E Land area and crops grown Yes Yes ID of person who manages the plot

ID of plot owner, if different from

manager

F Major Crop Production Yes, if

ag

survey

Yes ID of plot manager (household

member)

G Agricultural Wage Labor Possibl

y

Yes ID of laborer

H Other Income Possibl

y

Yes ID of people with other incomes,

businesses, ID of people sending

and receiving remittances

Socio-economic modules (cont’d)

Module Baseline? Sex-

disaggregated?

Which hh

member?

J Assets Ideally Yes ID of asset owner

K Group Membership Ideally Yes ID of group

member

L Savings Possible Yes ID of account

owner

M Credit and Lending Ideally Yes ID of borrower

Additional consumption, health, and nutrition-related modules

Module Baseline? Sex-disaggregated? Which hh member?

N 24-hour individual food

recall

Depends

on purpose

of survey

Yes all

O Dietary diversity Ideally Yes all

P Reproductive health Depends

on purpose

of survey

Yes Women

Q Anthropometry and

morbidity

Ideally Yes all

Some of these indicators are more expensive to collect (e.g. 24-hour individual food recall) and will require highly trained enumerators.Sometimes a good dietary diversity survey will do the trick.

Additional gender-related modules

Module Baseline? Sex-disaggregated? Which hh member?

R Labor use and time use by

sex

Yes Yes Main male and female,

could also include children

depending on focus

S Domains of decisionmaking

authority, especially about

assets

Yes Yes Main male and female

T Control of cash income and

use of income

Yes Yes Main male and female

U Level of gender-related

conflict and violence

Ideally Typically only woman is

asked

Main woman

Caveat in fielding questions about domestic violence: Need to have trained enumerators with knowledge about services availableNeed to protect privacy of respondents and not subject them to greater risk

Engendering the asset module (simple)

• ID of owner

• ID of decisionmakeron sales

Asset (g)Number

ownedID of owner

ID of

decisionmaker for

sale

Animal

Cattle

Horses

Sheep/goats

Poultry

Pigs

Domestic assets

Cooker

Kitchen cupboard

Refrigerator

Radio

Television

DVD player

Cell phone

Chairs

Mosquito nets

Gas stove

Spades/shovels

Ploughs

Ownership of Assets (from WEAI)

Productive Capital Does anyone in your household currently have any [ITEM]?Yes 1No 2 >> next item

How many of [ITEM] does your household currently have?

Who would you say owns most of the [ITEM]?

Who would you say can decide whether to sell [ITEM] most of the time?

Who would you say can decide whether to give away [ITEM] most of the time?

Who would you say can decide to mortgage or rent out [ITEM] most of the time?

Who contributes most to decisions regarding a new purchase of [ITEM]?

Productive Capital G3.01a G3.01b G3.02 G3.03 G3.04 G3.05 G3.06

AAgricultural land

(pieces/plots)

B Large livestock (oxen, cattle)

CSmall livestock (goats, pigs,

sheep)

DChickens, Ducks, Turkeys, Pigeons

EFish pond or fishing

equipment

FFarm equipment (non-

mechanized)

GFarm equipment

(mechanized)

HNonfarm business

equipment G3.02-G3.06: Decision-making and control over productive capital

Self…………………………………………………………………………..1Partner/Spouse ……………………………………………………….2Self and partner/spouse jointly…………………………………3Other household member …………….. ………………………..4Self and other household member(s)…………………………5Partner/Spouse and other household member(s)……….6Someone (or group of people) outside the household...7Self and other outside people…………………………………....8Partner/Spouse and other outside people………………….9Self, partner/spouse and other outside people.............10

I House (and other structures)

JLarge consumer durables

(fridge, TV, sofa)

KSmall consumer durables

(radio, cookware)

L Cell phone

M

Other land not used for

agricultural purposes

(pieces, residential or

commercial land)

NMeans of transportation

(bicycle, motorcycle, car)

MODULE G3: ACCESS TO PRODUCTIVE CAPITAL – page 3

.

Purchase, sale, or transfer of assets (from WEAI)MODULE G3: ACCESS TO PRODUCTIVE CAPITAL – page 3

.Productive Capital Does anyone in

your household currently have any [ITEM]?Yes 1No 2 >> next item

How many of [ITEM] does your household currently have?

Who would you say owns most of the [ITEM]?

Who would you say can decide whether to sell [ITEM] most of the time?

Who would you say can decide whether to give away [ITEM] most of the time?

Who would you say can decide to mortgage or rent out [ITEM] most of the time?

Who contributes most to decisions regarding a new purchase of [ITEM]?

Productive Capital G3.01a G3.01b G3.02 G3.03 G3.04 G3.05 G3.06

AAgricultural land

(pieces/plots)

B Large livestock (oxen, cattle)

CSmall livestock (goats, pigs,

sheep)

DChickens, Ducks, Turkeys, Pigeons

EFish pond or fishing

equipment

FFarm equipment (non-

mechanized)

GFarm equipment

(mechanized)

HNonfarm business

equipmentG3.02-G3.06: Decision-making and control over productive capital

Self…………………………………………………………………………..1Partner/Spouse ……………………………………………………….2Self and partner/spouse jointly…………………………………3Other household member …………….. ………………………..4Self and other household member(s)…………………………5Partner/Spouse and other household member(s)……….6Someone (or group of people) outside the household...7Self and other outside people…………………………………....8Partner/Spouse and other outside people………………….9Self, partner/spouse and other outside people.............10

I House (and other structures)

JLarge consumer durables

(fridge, TV, sofa)

KSmall consumer durables

(radio, cookware)

L Cell phone

M

Other land not used for

agricultural purposes

(pieces, residential or

commercial land)

NMeans of transportation

(bicycle, motorcycle, car)

G3.02-G3.06: Decision-making and control over productive capital

III. Measuring control of income

Control over Use of Income (1 of 2)

Activity Did you (singular) participate in [ACTIVITY] in the past 12 months (that is during the last [one/two] cropping seasons)?Yes 1No 2 >> next activity

How much input did you have in making decisions about [ACTIVITY]?

How much input did you have in decisions on the use of income generated from [ACTIVITY]

ActivityCode

Activity Description G2.01 G2.02 G2.03

AFood crop farming: crops that are grown primarily for household food consumption

B Cash crop farming: crops that are grown primary for sale in the market

C Livestock raising

D Non-farm economic activities: Small business, self-employment, buy-and-sell

E Wage and salary employment: in-kind or monetary work both agriculture and other wage work

F Fishing or fishpond culture

G2.02/G2.03: Input into decision making

No input…….. …….. …….. …….. ……..1

Input into very few decisions ……..2

Input into some decisions…….. ……3

Input into most decisions ….. ….. ..4

Input into all decisions….. ….. ….. ..5

No decision made……………………….6

MODULE G2: ROLE IN HOUSEHOLD DECISION-MAKING AROUND PRODUCTION

AND INCOME GENERATION – page 2

Control over use of Income (2 of 2)

ENUMERATOR: Ask G5.01 for all categories of activities before asking G5.02. Do not ask G5.02 if G5.01 response is 1 and respondent is male OR G5.01 response is 2 and respondent is female.

If household does not engage in that particular activity, enter 98 and proceed to next activity.

When decisions are made regarding the following aspects of household life, who is it that normally takes the decision?

To what extent do you feel you can make your own personal decisions regarding these aspects of household life if you want(ed) to?

Ask only if G5.01 is 1 and respondent is female, G5.01 is 2 and respondent is male, or G5.01 is 3-7.

G5.01 G5.02

AGetting inputs for agricultural

production

BThe types of crops to grow for

agricultural production

C Taking crops to the market (or not)

D Livestock raising

EYour own (singular) wage or salary

employment

F

Major household expenditures (such as a large appliance for the house like refrigerator)

G

Minor household expenditures (such as food for daily consumption or other household needs)

G5.01: Who makes decision

Main male or husband………………………………1 (if MALE)

Main female or wife ………………....2 (if FEMALE)

Husband and wife jointly…………………3

Someone else in the household…………………4

Jointly with someone else inside the

household…………………5

Jointly with someone else outside the

household…………………6

Someone outside the household/other…………………7

G5.02: Extent of participation in decision making

Not at all …………………………1

Small extent……………………..2

Medium extent…………………..3

To a high extent…………………4

MODULE G5: DECISION MAKING -- page 7

Field implementation issues

• Who should be interviewed? “head of household?”

• Should the head of household answer for all household members?

• Different people will report different things—need to reconcile

Field implementation issues, cont’d

• Privacy important, but especially important for asset issues (hidden assets)

• Should field teams employ men and women? • Examples:

– Pakistan and Bangladesh surveys have teams of men and women– Surveys in the Philippines almost always employ women (trust and

safety issues)– Surveys in Guatemala City employ women to interviewer (safety

issues)– Most interviewers in our other surveys are men (small cadre of

women to draw on)

• Need to train and employ skilled qualitative field personnel

Concluding remarks

• Context, context, context

• Identify focus of study to avoid getting lost in details

• Mixed methods: hh survey should ideally be informed by qualitative work; quantitative and qualitative work can be iterative

• Learn from experience of others in the field, especially in the same country