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The prevalence of chronic diseases is projected to increase over the coming years in African countries. In a context of limited access to formal insurance, this paper investigates how individuals adjust their labor supply in response to a chronic disease affecting another household member. Using original individual panel data collected in Senegal, we find that adult men and boys significantly increase their labor supply in response to another member's chronic disease, in particular if the latter is a woman. Girls are more likely to work if a male member is chronically ill, and women if the ill member was working before the shock. This suggests that social norms regarding gender roles may be challenged when households have to compensate for earning losses or when the number of male members able to work is reduced. We also investigate the consequences of such a shock on the number of domestic hours performed and on children's human capital. Women largely increase their numbers hours spent on domestic activities which highlights a risk of work overload. These results have implications for health policies that should aim at reducing the burden of chronic diseases for households. Children's school enrollment does not seem to be adversely affected, which suggests that the coping mechanisms implemented help at least to protect this outcome.

Dans de nombreux pays africains, les données relatives au marché du travail ne sont pas disponibles sur une base régulière et la façon dont les enquêtes et recensements auprès des ménages mesurent l'emploi diffère grandement, à la fois dans le temps et entre les pays. Ces différences, susceptibles d'influencer les statistiques produites indépendamment de l'évolution réelle de l'emploi, rendent ainsi difficile l'analyse des dynamiques du marché du travail et l'élaboration de recommandations politiques. Dans ce papier, nous nous intéressons plus particulièrement à la mesure de l'emploi des femmes dans les enquêtes. Dans un premier temps, nous proposons une revue de la littérature existante sur cette question, au niveau conceptuel et opérationnel. Dans un second temps, à partir d'une cinquantaine d'enquêtes et de recensements collectés au Cameroun, au Mali et au Sénégal entre 1976 et 2012, nous illustrons la diversité des caractéristiques d'enquêtes en termes de formulation des questions, de détail du module emploi, de la période de référence utilisée dans les questionnaires et de la période de collecte des données. Enfin, sur la base de cette analyse, nous formulons quelques recommandations pour une meilleure mesure de l'activité économique des femmes dans les pays en développement.

This paper investigates the eect of several survey questionnaire characteristics on em- ployment statistics. It also assess the dierences in sensitivity to survey design across gender and living area. Indeed, as suggested in the literature, women, especially those living in rural areas, are expected to be more sensitive than men to survey design, due to both the nature of the work (seasonal, occasional, temporary, informal, unpaid family work) and social norms. In many African countries, labor force surveys are not available on a regular basis and the way existing household surveys and census measure employment diers greatly, both over time and between countries. This makes it dicult to properly study labor market dynamics and to draw meaningful policy recommendations. Using about fty surveys and censuses collected in Cameroon, Mali and Senegal between 1976 and 2012, we rst review the diver- sity of survey instruments used and highlight the key questionnaire characteristics that are likely to aect employment statistics. Exploiting within-survey variations of the wording of questions, the detail of the labor module and the length of the reference period, we then assess the eect of these features on labor statistics. Empirical results shows signi cant eects of each questionnaire feature and suggest that women are not systematically more sensitive than men to survey design, nor is it the case for rural individuals compared to urban ones.