Uganda
Methodological Experiment on Measuring Asset Ownership from a Gender Perspective (MEXA)
To develop clear guidelines on respondent selection protocols for measuring asset ownership and control at the individual level, the EDGE project and the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) collaborated on the design, implementation and analysis of a methodological survey experiment assessing the relative effects of different household interview settings on key estimates of asset ownership and control. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBoS), an early partner of the EDGE project, was selected to implement the experiment in Uganda given its strong implementation record and longstanding partnership with the LSMS.
The following five survey treatment arms were tested:
- Self-identified most knowledgeable household member, interviewed alone, asked about assets owned, exclusively or jointly, by any household member;
- Randomly selected member of the principal couple - interviewed alone, asked about assets owned, exclusively or jointly, by any household member;
- Principal couple - interviewed together, asked about assets owned, exclusively or jointly, by any household member;
- Adult (18+) household members - interviewed alone and simultaneously, asked about assets owned, exclusively or jointly, by any household member, and;
- Adult (18+) household members - interviewed alone and simultaneously, asked about assets owned, exclusively or jointly, by individual respondent.
Using systematic sampling with a random start, four households were randomly allocated to each of the five treatment arms in 137 enumeration areas, which were selected with probability proportional to size, for a total sample size of 2,740 households.