Estimating the prevalence of child labour in the cocoa industry via indirect elicitation methods: a mixed-methods study

Aurelia Lepine (), Yah Ariane Bernadette N’Djore (), Carole Treibich (), Henry Cust (), Laurent Foubert (), Megan Passey () and Selina Binder ()
Additional contact information
Aurelia Lepine: University College London
Yah Ariane Bernadette N’Djore: Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Carole Treibich: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, INRAE, Grenoble INP, GAEL
Henry Cust: University College London
Laurent Foubert: International Cocoa Initiative
Megan Passey: International Cocoa Initiative
Selina Binder: Barry Callebaut

Journal of Population Economics, 2024, vol. 37, issue 4, No 12, 29 pages

Abstract: Abstract Data from children suggest that the prevalence of child labour in the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire is a worrying 38%. However, while surveying children has the potential to reduce sensitivity biases such as social desirability bias, it presents significant ethical dilemmas and may also be associated with other reporting biases, making accurate estimates of child labour difficult. To address this, we collected data from 1741 cocoa producers to assess whether parents could provide more accurate estimates using indirect survey methods. We compared direct questioning with a list experiment and a novel non-verbal method (‘colorbox’). We found higher prevalence rates of child labour using indirect elicitation methods, but lower than those obtained from children’s surveys. Qualitative in-depth interviews revealed motivations for underreporting, including fear of legal consequences and mistrust of stakeholders. Indirect methods alone are not sufficient to correct for underreporting when child labour is collected from parents. Future research should prioritise direct data collection from children and address ethical concerns to obtain more accurate estimates of child labour.

Keywords: Child labour; Sensitive bias; Measurement error; Cocoa; Sustainable development goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I25 J13 J22 J80 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00148-024-01054-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:37:y:2024:i:4:d:10.1007_s00148-024-01054-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... tion/journal/148/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s00148-024-01054-3

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Population Economics is currently edited by K.F. Zimmermann

More articles in Journal of Population Economics from Springer, European Society for Population Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().