Imai, Katsushi
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Publication Changes in Subjective versus Objective Well-Being in India(2021-05-12) Kulkarni, Vani S.; Kulkarni, Veena S.; Imai, Katsushi S.; Gaiha, RaghavAlthough there is abundant literature on subjective well-being (SWB), there is virtually none for India. Growing recognition of the validity and accuracy of measures of SWB of well-being underlies the rapid growth of literature on SWB in recent decades but it has mainly focused on developed countries. Ours is, to our knowledge, the first study of SWB at the all-India level, and one of the few on developing countries, with a rigorous validation of the results. Applying robust OLS and ordered probit models to the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) panel data in 2005 and 2012, we assess SWB changes in 2005-2012, based on a self-reported measure of changes in economic well-being, as a function of household and state covariates in 2005. This is in sharp contrast with earlier studies’ focus on the levels of SWB. Another point of departure of our study and an innovative extension is to compare the covariates of SWB changes with those of objective well-being (OWB) changes, proxied by the relative growth in real per capita household consumption between 2005 and 2012. Households with an older and educated head in a larger household, located in urban areas or affluent states in 2005 tend to experience further improvement in both SWB and OWB between 2005 and 2012. On the contrary, households with a female household head, with more male members in the labour market, with regular access to mass media, without members suffering from non-communicable diseases or disability are more likely to be better off subjectively without experiencing corresponding improvement in OWB. The policy challenges raise serious concerns.Publication Change in Subjective Well-Being, Affluence and Trust in Judiciary in India(2022-05-12) Kulkarni, Vani S.; Kulkarni, Veena S.; Imai, Katsushi S.; Gaiha, RaghavThe present study tests the hypothesis that trust in the lower judiciary in India - comprising High Courts at the state level and District Courts at the lower level - is associated with improvement in subjective economic well-being. The analysis is based on the India Human Development Survey (IHDS) 1 and 2 in 2005 and 2012, a large nationally representative household panel dataset. Using 2SLS and Lewbel IV models to take into account the endogeneity of trust in the lower judiciary, our analysis confirms that trust in the lower judiciary has a positive association with the change in SWB. The policy significance of this result is substantial as the pace of judicial reform tends to be slow in developing countries, such as India. Attention is drawn to specific reforms to reduce the pendency of cases. These include repeal of long outdated and dysfunctional laws, greater funding for expansion of the judiciary and, more importantly, for increasing the productivity of judges through the creation of a specialised administrative agency to support the judiciary and more effective use of IT in case management. This also has the potential for reducing rampant corruption, frequency of adjournments in court hearings as well as in ensuring autonomy of the judiciary.Publication Change in Subjective Well-Being, Affluence and Trust in State Governments in India(2022-06-10) Kulkarni, Vani S.; Kulkarni, Veena S.; Imai, Katsushi; Gaiha, RaghavThe present study explores the relationship between trust in state governments and changes in subjective well-being in India, drawing upon the nationally-representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS) panel data for 2005 and 2012. Our econometric results confirm that people’s trust in state governments is positively associated with changes in their subjective well-being in economic aspects. To take into account the endogeneity of people’s trust in the state government, we have used the 2SLS model where the trust is instrumented by (i) whether the winning legislators belonged to the ruling party, and (ii) whether the margin of victory over the closest rival exceeded 12 %. The robustness of the results has been confirmed by the Lewbel IV model in which the internal instruments are used in addition to the two external instruments. The policy focus in rebuilding trust in state governments destroyed by the relentless pursuit of Hindutva and over-centralisation are discussed.Publication Change in Subjective Well-Being, Affluence and Trust in Politicians(2022-03-30) Kulkarni, Vani S.; Kulkarni, Veena S.; Imai, Katsushi S.; Gaiha, RaghavUsing nationally-representative household panel data in the India Human Development Surveys for 2005-6 and 2011-12, we examine the causal relationship between trust in politicians and the change in SWB between 2005 and 2012 where the politicians comprise Members of State Legislative Assemblies, Members of Parliament and other political aspirants. Our analysis is unique as it takes account of the loss of public trust in politicians due to the scourge of criminality among the elected members. More specifically, we test (i) whether criminality among the politicians influences trust in them, and (ii) whether the trust in politicians influences perceived well-being, drawing upon instrumental variable (IV) and Lewbel IV estimators. We discuss the policy challenges in mitigating this scourge and enhancing perceived well-being in light of a recent surge in the share of criminal politicians.