Measuring time use in rural India: Design and validation of a low-cost survey module
设计并验证了一种低成本、可扩展的时间使用调查模块，通过减少类别和时间间隔，比传统方法节省33%时间，能有效测量市场工作、家务劳动和休闲的平均时间，尤其适用于低识字率女性群体。
Time use data facilitate understanding of labor supply, especially for women who often undertake unpaid care and home production. Although assisted diary-based time use surveys are suitable for low-literacy populations, they are costly and rarely used. We create a low-cost, scalable alternative that captures contextually-determined broad time categories; here, allocations across market work, household labor, and leisure. Using fewer categories and larger time intervals takes 33% less time than traditional modules. Field experiments show the module measures average time across the broader categories as well as the traditional approach, particularly for our target female population. The module can also capture multitasking for a specific category of interest. Its shortcomings are short duration activity capture and the need for careful category selection. The module's brevity and low cost make it a viable method to use in household and labor force surveys, facilitating tracking of work and leisure patterns as economies develop.