Gender Differences in Life Satisfaction

• Název práce v češtině: Genderové rozdíly v životní spokojenosti
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Gender Differences in Life Satisfaction
• Klíčová slova: ekonomie štěstí, spokojenost se životem, subjektivní blahobyt, nerovnost, gender, porovnání
• Klíčová slova anglicky: economics of happiness, life satisfaction, subjective well-being, inequality, gender, comparison
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2018/2019
• Typ práce: bakalářská práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Institut ekonomických studií (23-IES)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Mgr. Barbara Pertold-Gebicka, M.A., Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno vedoucím/školitelem
• Datum přihlášení: 06.05.2019
• Datum zadání: 06.05.2019
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 09.09.2020 09:00
• Místo konání obhajoby: Opletalova - Opletalova 26, O105, Opletalova - místn. č. 105
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 05.08.2020
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 09.09.2020
• Oponenti: Mgr. Kateřina Chadimová

Seznam odborné literatury

Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada. "Happiness economics." SERIEs 4.1 (2013): 35-60.

Graham, Carol, and Soumya Chattopadhyay. "Gender and well-being around the world." International Journal of Happiness and Development 1.2 (2013): 212-232.

Lalive, Rafael, and Alois Stutzer. "Approval of equal rights and gender differences in well-being." Journal of Population Economics23.3 (2010): 933-962.

MacKerron, George. "Happiness economics from 35 000 feet." Journal of Economic Surveys 26.4 (2012): 705-735.

Meisenberg, Gerhard, and Michael A. Woodley. "Gender differences in subjective well-being and their relationships with gender equality." Journal of Happiness Studies 16.6 (2015): 1539-1555.

Stevenson, Betsey, and Justin Wolfers. "Happiness inequality in the United States." The Journal of Legal Studies 37.S2 (2008): S33-S79.

Stevenson, Betsey, and Justin Wolfers. "The paradox of declining female happiness." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy1.2 (2009): 190-225.

Předběžná náplň práce v anglickém jazyce

Research question and motivation

Is there any difference between female and male level of happiness? How has the gender gap in life satisfaction changed over time?
The economics of happiness is a fast developing field. It is focused on quantitative measurement of people's well-being, often referred measured using questions on life satisfaction, which is treated as a proxy for individuals' utility. My thesis will concentrate on gender differences in these measures, which is a topic of interest nowadays. Women's rights have highly improved over recent decades. How has it changed female life satisfaction? Has it somehow affected male happiness? These are the questions I will consider in my research.

Contribution

Existing research suggests that historically women reported higher levels of subjective well-being than men, however, with the shifts of rights of women the happiness gap has diminished. By the start of the 21st century, women reported happiness levels on par with or lower than those reported by men (Stevenson, Betsey, and Justin Wolfers 2009).
There are several studies describing how education, job opportunities and professional status of men and women affect their life satisfaction. These factors originate in gender norms and some social and cultural conditions. For example, a high level of female relative to male happiness is characteristic of countries with a high proportion of Muslims, a low proportion of Catholics, and absence of communist history. A low rate of female non-agricultural employment is also associated with higher female-versus-male happiness and satisfaction (Meisenberg, Gerhard, and Michael A. Woodley 2015).

My thesis will document the evolution of happiness of men and women over time and its dependence on different factors. While existing literature focuses mainly on women's life satisfaction, I will consider male happiness and difference between them as well. Most of the literature on the topic is based on an examination of either the gender gap itself or influence of some separate factors on this gap. I will expand the field of studies by correlating gender differences in well-being to such country-specific characteristics as gender norms, fertility rates, share of household duties performed by men, women labor force participation, etc. to determine what is responsible for changes in the gender gap in happiness. The research can open a prospect for improvement of people's life satisfaction and approach elimination of the gap between female and male happiness.

Methodology

For the empirical research I will use the World Value Survey data for XX countries and YY years (1981-2016) related to level of male and female life satisfaction. First, I will use OLS and ordered models to identify the gender gap in life satisfaction for each country (or group of countries if the number of observations falls too low) and year separately. Next, I will relate the estimated gender gap to measures describing the level of female emancipation, gender norms, and gender equality. If data allows, I will also estimate individual-level determinants of life satisfaction including individual-reported views on gender equality as the explanatory variables.

Outline

1. Introduction
2. Theory and literature review
3. Data
4. Methodology
5. Analysis of the results
6. Conclusion