The impact of within-household relative income on happiness: Does gender identity matter?

Abstract

Based on a household survey from China, this paper analyzes the effect of within-household relative income on happiness, taking into account the role of gender identity. Results show that the probability of being happy decreases significantly with the wife earning more income than her husband for both men and women from the households holding the traditional gender identity, i.e., the husband should be a breadwinner and the wife a homemaker. This is, however, not the case for those households without such a traditional view.