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Gendered Well-Being: Cross-Sectional Evidence from Poor Urban Households in India

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  • Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay

    (Indian Institute of Management, Indore)

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of the subjective well-being of women relative to men in low-income urban households in India. Education and employment are pathways to greater financial well-being which is presumably of great salience to poor populations. However, either or both of these may increase aspirations. The social norms that restrict the autonomy of women may mute the impact of education and employment in a way that does not happen to men. To address this hypothesis, the paper uses primary data from a survey of over 1000 respondents across slums in Delhi. The paper finds that education and employment does reduce the well-being of women relative to men. We show that these gender varying correlations are robust to omitted variables bias.

Suggested Citation

  • Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay, 2020. "Gendered Well-Being: Cross-Sectional Evidence from Poor Urban Households in India," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 281-308, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:151:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-020-02372-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-020-02372-1
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender; Well-being; Poverty; Social norms; Urban;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B54 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Feminist Economics
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

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