Male Out-Migration and the Health of Left-Behind Wives in India: The Roles of Remittances, Household Responsibilities, and Autonomy Sonalde Desai Lei Lei

Social Science & Medicine, Volume 280, July 2021 In developing countries, labor out-migration has led to millions of married couples living apart from each other. Male out-migration brings economic benefits to the families in places of origin, but also leads to profound changes in the...   Read More

Precarity in a Time of Uncertainty: Gendered Employment Patterns during the Covid-19 Lockdown in India Sonalde Desai Neerad Deshmukh and Santanu Pramanik

India implemented one of the world’s most stringent lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This study examines whether the impacts of the lockdown on employment differed by gender in areas surrounding Delhi. An ongoing monthly employment survey between March 2019 and May 2020 allows...   Read More

Does ‘Love’ make a difference? Marriage choice and post-marriage decision-making power Manjistha Banerji Ashwini S. Deshpande

Women's limited intra-household decision-making power has several dimensions: geographic, cultural, economic, and demographic. The dimension we focus on in this paper relates to women's transition into marriage. Marriages in India are near universal and age at marriage is low implying that nearly all women spend...   Read More

Economic Status and Adult Mortality in India: Is the Relationship Sensitive to Choice of Indicators? Debasis Barik Sonalde Desai Reeve Vanneman

Research on economic status and adult mortality is often stymied by the reciprocity of this relationship and lack of clarity on which aspect of economic status matters. While financial resources increase access to healthcare and nutrition and reduce mortality, sickness also reduces labor force participation, thereby...   Read More