Identifier
1118
Document Type
Discussion Paper
Date of Paper
Summer 7-2025
Abstract
Current estimates of child labour often rely on questions such as, “How many hours did you work last week?” While biases in adult self-reports are well-documented in high-income countries, there is limited evidence on the accuracy of children’s responses in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Using data from nine LMICs, including China and India, this paper shows that time diaries report more than twice as many work hours as standard questionnaires. This discrepancy suggests that current estimates may significantly understate child labour. Moreover, certain forms of work—such as collecting water or firewood—appear to contribute to these measurement gaps.
Acknowledgements
This project has received funding from: the International Labour Organization, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the European Research Council Consolidator Grant GenTime (agreement No 771736, awardee: Man-Yee Kan), Securing the Centre for Time Use Research (ref ES/T001550/1), Time-Use Resources for National Statistics (ref ES/V016644/1) both from the UKRI/ESRC.
Recommended Citation
Lamote de Grignon Pérez, Juana, Federico Blanco Allais, Wenbin Wang, Tanay Kasyap, Matthew Henglong Luo and Jialu Tang. 2025. "Estimating How Much Children Work: Questionnaires Versus Time Use Diaries." EGC Discussion Paper 1118.