Women's Autonomy and Subjective Well-Being in India: How Village Norms Shape the Impact of Self-Help Groups

Thomas Hoop, Luuk Van Kempen, Rik Linssen and Anouka Van Eerdewijk

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This paper presents quasi-experimental impact estimates of women self-help groups on subjective well-being in Orissa, India. We find that, on average, self-help group membership does not affect subjective well-being. However, our results at the same time reveal that subjective well-being sharply declines for those members whose newly gained autonomy meets with relatively conservative social gender norms among non-members. We interpret this finding as evidence for heterogeneous losses of feelings of identity for self-help group members. Identity losses loom larger when women’s enhanced autonomy implies a stronger violation of social gender norms at the community level. Social sanctioning mechanisms play an important role in the heterogeneous negative impact on subjective well-being, as evidenced by qualitative accounts of women’s empowerment trajectories in the research area.

Keywords: Autonomy; Subjective Well-Being; Impact Evaluation; Identity; Sanctioning; India (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I31 I38 O12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-10-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-hap, nep-mfd and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:25921

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