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Visible consumption, relative deprivation, and health: evidence from a developing country

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  • Punarjit Roychowdhury

    (Indian Institute of Management, Indore)

Abstract

Empirical research that explores the psychosocial relationship between relative deprivation (RD) and health has measured RD in terms of income although income is not easily observable. I extend this literature by shifting the focus from income to its visible manifestations − visible consumption expenditure. This is likely to more appropriately match both theory and intuition since a prerequisite for RD to have any kind of psychosocial impact on health is that RD must be visible, i.e., it must be measured based on a metric which is observable. Utilizing newly available data from India, in consonance with the psychosocial hypothesis that asserts a negative relationship between RD and health, I find that higher (visible) RD is associated with worse overall health. Moreover, my results suggest the negative association between RD is stronger for individuals living in rural areas and individuals who belong to the lower end of the income distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Punarjit Roychowdhury, 2018. "Visible consumption, relative deprivation, and health: evidence from a developing country," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 38(3), pages 1366-1380.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-18-00066
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    1. Ebenezer Lemven Wirba & Ernest Ngeh Tingum & Francis Menjo Baye, 2024. "The cost of keeping‐up with the Joneses: Relative deprivation and food spending in Cameroon," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 415-434, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health; India; Psychosocial; Relative Deprivation; Visible Consumption;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development

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