Research

Gender, social disadvantage, and happiness: Women’s emotion labor in Indian families
- Topics: Gender, Mental Health, Social inequality
This study documents and contextualizes a new puzzle about reported happiness among married women using data from India, a large developing country with severe gender discrimination. Gender inequality has been widely documented in India. For example, prior studies show that...Read More..

Mobile phone survey methods for measuring social discrimination!
- Topics: Caste, Gender, Social inequality
The Social Attitudes Research, India (SARI) project is among the first to study prejudice and discrimination in India using a low-cost mobile phone survey. We collect representative data on explicit prejudice and discrimination against women, Dalits, and Muslims. We also measure public attitudes...Read More..

This paper uses data from the newly done phone survey by r.i.c.e. called Social Attitudes Research, India (SARI). It studies explicit prejudice against women and Dalits in Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. We find high levels of explicit prejudice...Read More..

Experiences and Perceptions of Discrimination among Dalits and Muslims
- Topics: Caste, Religion, Social inequality
Through the use of new survey data, the experiences and perceptions of discrimination among Dalits and Muslims have been quantified. One important result is that many respondents report experiencing discrimination at school and in interactions with government officials. These results...Read More..

Measurement of population mental health: Evidence from a mobile phone survey in India
- Topics: Gender, Mental Health, Social inequality
In high-income countries, population health surveys often measure mental health. This is less common in low- and middle-income countries, including in India, where mental health is under-researched relative to its disease burden. The objective of this study is to assess...Read More..

When women eat last: Discrimination at home and women’s mental health
- Topics: Decision-making, Gender, Mental Health, Social inequality
Women and girls in India face many forms of discrimination throughout the life course. Gender inequality has important consequences for women themselves, and also for their families and communities. The 2011 India Human Development Survey found that in about a...Read More..

Revisiting Open Defecation: Evidence from a Panel Survey in Rural North India, 2014–18
- Topics: Caste, Sanitation, Social inequality
Since October 2014, the Government of India has worked towards the goal of eliminating open defecation by 2019 through the Swachh Bharat Mission. In June 2014, the results of a survey of rural sanitation behaviour in North India were first...Read More..

Caste prejudice and infection: why a dangerous lack of hygiene persists in government hospitals
- Topics: Caste, Child health, Maternal health, Sanitation
In light of India’s continuing efforts to reduce maternal mortality and make childbirth safer for women, this article explores why government hospitals continue to be dangerously unhygienic, posing serious risk of infection to patients in maternity wards and labor rooms. ...Read More..

Persistence of solid fuel use in rural north India (published paper)
- Topics: Demography, Gender, Government programs, Pollution
Survey evidence from rural North India showing persistent solid fuel use despite increases in liquefied petroleum gas ownership is presented. Although three-quarters of survey households in these states had LPG, almost all also had a stove that uses solid fuels....Read More..

Assessing public awareness and use of medical abortion via mobile phone survey in India
- Topics: Social inequality
Objective: We assess the feasibility of measuring awareness and use of medical abortion via a mobile phone survey on social attitudes in India. Study design: In 2018, we conducted a mobile phone survey with 3455 married men and women in...Read More..

Measuring open defecation in India using survey questions: Evidence from a randomized survey experiment
- Topics: Sanitation
Objectives: To investigate differences in reported open defecation between a question about latrine use or open defecation for every household member and a household-level question. Setting: Rural India is home to most of the world’s open defecation. India’s Demographic and...Read More..

Where there is smoke: Solid fuel externalities, gender, and adult respiratory health in India
- Topics: Environment, Gender, Lung obstruction, Solid fuels
Chronic respiratory conditions are a leading cause of death in the world. Using data on lung obstruction from the WHO Survey of Global AGEing and Adult Health (WHO-SAGE 2007-08), this paper studies the determinants of respiratory health in India, home...Read More..

The association of early-life exposure to ambient PM2.5 and later-childhood height-for-age in India: an observational study
- Topics: Child health, Climate change, Environment, Height, Pollution
This paper by Dean and Sangita (co-authored with Sagnik Dey, Sourangshu Choundary, Noah Scovronick and Joshua Apte) is the first study to directly estimate the impact of early-life exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) on child height-for-age at the...Read More..

The child health impacts of coal: evidence from India’s coal expansion
- Topics: Child health, Environment, Height, Pollution
This paper investigates the child health impacts associated with a large coal plant expansion in India. Using place and cohort fixed effects, exposure to a median-sized coal plant at birth is associated with a height deficit of 0.09-0.10 standard deviations....Read More..

Willingness to Sacrifice for Climate Mitigation in Representative Samples of Indian Adults
- Topics: Climate change
This paper studies people’s willingness to sacrifice to achieve climate mitigation using a new-survey experiment that is representative of adults in the Indian state of Rajasthan and the city of Mumbai. In contrast to developed countries, few studies investigate climate...Read More..

Persistence of solid fuel use despite increases in LPG ownership: New survey evidence from rural north India (working paper)
- Topics: Demography, Gender, Government programs, Pollution
Solid fuel use is an important contributor to air pollution and disease burden in India. We present survey evidence documenting LPG ownership and cooking fuel use in rural north India. LPG ownership has increased rapidly, substantially driven by the Ujjwala...Read More..