Are We Measuring Working Hours Correctly? The Impact of Question Ordering in Surveys

Mikael Beatriz and Louis-Alexandre Erb

Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 2026, issue 550, 23-43

Abstract: [eng] A randomized controlled trial conducted as part of TraCov 2 (a survey investigating people’s experiences of work since the COVID pandemic) allows us to estimate the impact of the order in which questions are asked on respondents’ estimates of their working hours. It appears that respondents report working an average of 23 minutes more per week when they are asked to describe the nature of their working hours (night work, weekend work, work outside normal hours, etc.) before specifying the number of hours they work, instead of the other way around. Furthermore, this gap is most pronounced among higher- and intermediate-level occupations, categories which generally involve long, flexible working hours and frequent remote working. These results suggest that the nature of employees’ working schedules has an influence on their perception of the amount of time they spend working. This opens up new possibilities, not only in terms of improving survey questionnaires, but also for further research into how working hours are measured.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nse:ecosta:ecostat_2026_550_2

DOI: 10.24187/ecostat.2026.550.2146

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