Who is happier: Housewife or working wife?

Beja Jr, Edsel (2012): Who is happier: Housewife or working wife?

Abstract

Earlier research found no difference in the happiness between a housewife and a working wife. However, there now is the expectation that a difference in their happiness exists today given the increase in the labor participation of women over the years. This paper revisits the debate using data from the 2000s. For the upper- and low-income economies, there is still no difference in the happiness between a housewife and a working wife. In contrast, results for the middle-income economies clearly show that a part-time working wife is happier than a housewife and that both part-time working wife and housewife are happier than a full-time working wife.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Housewife; working wife; happiness; life satisfaction
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage ; Marital Dissolution ; Family Structure ; Domestic Abuse; D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D60 - General; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J20 - General; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B54 - Feminist Economics; C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C8 - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology ; Computer Programs > C80 - General

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