IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jsecdv/v26y2024i1d10.1007_s40847-023-00314-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Happiness among subaltern groups: Dalits in India and blacks in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Vani Kant Borooah

    (University of Ulster)

Abstract

This study has two purposes; the first is to test differences between dominant and subordinate groups in India and South Africa. For India, the comparison is between caste groups: the dominant “forward castes” and the subordinate “non-forward castes”. For South Africa, the comparison is between racial groups: whites as a dominant group and non-Whites (Blacks, Coloured, and Asians) as a subordinate group. The second purpose of the study is to compare happiness levels between India and South Africa with a view to rigorously establishing where happiness is greatest and what its drivers are. These issues are examined using data from the World Values Survey (WVS). Covering in excess of 250,000 respondents drawn from 90 countries, and available for the period 1994–2014, WVS remains the most widely accessible database on well-being. This study establishes that, in general, Indians were happier than South Africans in this period, meaning that the predicted probability of being happy was, on average, higher in India (84.2%) than in South Africa (81.1%). Another important finding was that persons from the dominant groups were more likely to be happy in South Africa than in India but that persons from the subordinate groups were more likely to be happy in India than in South Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Vani Kant Borooah, 2024. "Happiness among subaltern groups: Dalits in India and blacks in South Africa," Journal of Social and Economic Development, Springer;Institute for Social and Economic Change, vol. 26(1), pages 83-114, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jsecdv:v:26:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s40847-023-00314-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s40847-023-00314-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s40847-023-00314-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s40847-023-00314-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    2. Gerdtham, Ulf-G & Johannesson, Magnus, 2001. "The relationship between happiness, health, and socio-economic factors: results based on Swedish microdata," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 553-557.
    3. John F. Helliwell & Haifang Huang, 2013. "Comparing the Happiness Effects of Real and On-line Friends," NBER Working Papers 18690, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Vani Borooah, 2006. "What Makes People Happy? Some Evidence from Northern Ireland," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 427-465, November.
    5. Melikşah Demir & Metin Özdemir & Lesley Weitekamp, 2007. "Looking to happy tomorrows with friends: Best and close friendships as they predict happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 243-271, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Borooah, Vani, 2021. "Subjective Well-Being: Happiness and Life Satisfaction in India and South Africa," MPRA Paper 112985, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Wan-chi Chen, 2012. "How Education Enhances Happiness: Comparison of Mediating Factors in Four East Asian Countries," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 117-131, March.
    3. Hinks, Timothy, 2020. "Bribery, motivations for bribery and life satisfaction in transitional countries," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    4. Ferdi Botha, 2014. "Life Satisfaction and Education in South Africa: Investigating the Role of Attainment and the Likelihood of Education as a Positional Good," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(2), pages 555-578, September.
    5. J. Cramm & V. Møller & A. Nieboer, 2012. "Individual- and Neighbourhood-Level Indicators of Subjective Well-Being in a Small and Poor Eastern Cape Township: The Effect of Health, Social Capital, Marital Status, and Income," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 105(3), pages 581-593, February.
    6. David G. Blanchflower & Carol L. Graham, 2022. "The Mid-Life Dip in Well-Being: a Critique," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 287-344, May.
    7. Tim Pawlowski & Christoph Breuer & Jorge Leyva, 2011. "Sport Opportunities and Local Well-being: Is Sport a Local Amenity?," Chapters, in: Plácido Rodríguez & Stefan Késenne & Brad R. Humphreys (ed.), The Economics of Sport, Health and Happiness, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Victoria Danaan, 2018. "Analysing Poverty in Nigeria through Theoretical Lenses," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, January.
    9. Ashantha Ranasinghe & Xuejuan Su, 2023. "When social assistance meets market power: A mixed duopoly view of health insurance in the United States," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 61(4), pages 851-869, October.
    10. Eckstein, Zvi & Zilcha, Itzhak, 1994. "The effects of compulsory schooling on growth, income distribution and welfare," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 339-359, July.
    11. Yonatan Berman & François Bourguignon, 2023. "On the social welfare interpretation of growth incidence curves," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 21(3), pages 723-741, September.
    12. Roobavannan, M. & Kandasamy, J. & Pande, S. & Vigneswaran, S. & Sivapalan, M., 2020. "Sustainability of agricultural basin development under uncertain future climate and economic conditions: A socio-hydrological analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    13. Alessandro Spiganti, 2022. "Wealth Inequality and the Exploration of Novel Alternatives," Working Papers 2022:02, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    14. Günther Rehme, 2007. "Education, Economic Growth and Measured Income Inequality," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(295), pages 493-514, August.
    15. Junyi Zhu, 2014. "Bracket Creep Revisited - with and without r > g: Evidence from Germany," Journal of Income Distribution, Ad libros publications inc., vol. 23(3), pages 106-158, November.
    16. Juan Antonio Duro & Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Emilio Padilla, 2017. "The Causal Factors of International Inequality in $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 Emissions Per Capita: A Regression-Based Inequality Decomposition Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(4), pages 683-700, August.
    17. Jeni Klugman & Francisco Rodríguez & Hyung-Jin Choi, 2011. "The HDI 2010: new controversies, old critiques," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 9(2), pages 249-288, June.
    18. Vani K. Borooah, 2013. "A general measure of the ‘effective’ number of parties in a political system," Chapters, in: Francisco Cabrillo & Miguel A. Puchades-Navarro (ed.), Constitutional Economics and Public Institutions, chapter 8, pages 146-159, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Francesco Andreoli & Eugenio Peluso, 2016. "So close yet so unequal: Reconsidering spatial inequality in U.S. cities," Working Papers 21/2016, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    20. Andonie, Costel & Kuzmics, Christoph & Rogers, Brian W., 2019. "Efficiency-based measures of inequality," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 60-69.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jsecdv:v:26:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s40847-023-00314-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.