From Income to Household Welfare: Lessons from Refrigerator Ownership in India

Sowmya Dhanaraj, Vidya Mahambare () and Poonam Munjal

Working Papers from Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India

Abstract: This paper draws implications for the energy and education policies in developing countries based on the insights derived from studying the determinants of household refrigerator ownership in India. In our study the failure of the government policies to ensure reliable public services such as uninterrupted power supply and improving female education levels turn out to be the key stumbling blocks to raising household welfare in India. While a threshold level of household income is necessary for a purchase of a consumer durable, it is not a sufficient condition. Our results for the determinants of refrigerator ownership in India suggest that, even when households have sufficient purchasing power, the duration of a complementary good (electricity for >17 h per day) is critical for the ownership, all else held constant. Also, females in households tend to derive greater utility from the refrigerator usage due to its impact on lowering household burden of work and easing women’s entry into the labour market. Our results confirm the hypothesis that when women bargaining power is proxied by the level of education, households with a female with higher level of education have higher probability of refrigerator ownership.

Keywords: Economic development: urban; rural; Household behaviour; Family structure; Econometric modelling; ownership analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C50 D12 D71 J12 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: From Income to Household Welfare: Lessons from Refrigerator Ownership in India (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mad:wpaper:2020-199

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