Understanding Rural Households’ Time Use in a Developing Setting: Validating a Low-Cost Time Use Module

Time use data facilitate deeper understanding of individual labor supply choices, especially for women, who are more likely to engage in unpaid care and home production. However, traditional time use data collection methods are time-consuming, expensive and susceptible to significant attrition. To address these concerns, we develop an abbreviated, low-cost time use survey module designed for low-literacy populations. It captures contextually-determined broad time use categories of interest to researchers - in our case, time allocations across market work, household labor, and leisure. Using survey experiments in the field, we show that, relative to the widely-used assisted diary approach, the new module is lower cost and relatively more accurate in capturing individuals’ average time use. Its primary shortcomings are its limited ability to capture short duration activities and simultaneous activities. Using the example of passive childcare, we show how module design can provide accurate information on multitasking for an identified category of interest.