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The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty

Evidence from various academic fields indicates that mental health and income are correlated. Additionally, evidence exists that an increase in income improves psychological well-being and evidence that poor psychological well-being negatively impacts income. The difficulty is that there is no defin...

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Main Author: Oaker, Brandon
Other Authors: Keswell, Malcolm
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Economics 2020
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access_status_str Open Access
author Oaker, Brandon
author2 Keswell, Malcolm
author_browse Keswell, Malcolm
Oaker, Brandon
author_facet Keswell, Malcolm
Oaker, Brandon
author_sort Oaker, Brandon
collection Thesis
description Evidence from various academic fields indicates that mental health and income are correlated. Additionally, evidence exists that an increase in income improves psychological well-being and evidence that poor psychological well-being negatively impacts income. The difficulty is that there is no definitive work pinpointing the direction of the causal relationship between income and psychological well-being, but studies are attempting to find out. Hence, this paper attempts to contribute to ongoing work with an IV estimation approach to determine the causal effects of psychological well-being on poverty. Using data provided by Haushofer and Shapiro, this paper finds evidence that an increase in income causes a reduction in depression and stress levels, along with increases in happiness and life satisfaction of the study participants. Additionally, it is found that these improvements in psychological well-being lead to increases in monthly household expenditure, especially health care. Furthermore, these findings indicate that when women receive a cash transfer, a significant proportion of that transfer is devoted to health care. All the estimates presented in the paper indicate that an improvement in economic well-being leads to an improvement in the mental health of the poor, which causes them to spend more and focus more on their health care.
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provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2020
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spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/31428 The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty Oaker, Brandon Keswell, Malcolm poverty consumption psychology well-being cash transfers development Evidence from various academic fields indicates that mental health and income are correlated. Additionally, evidence exists that an increase in income improves psychological well-being and evidence that poor psychological well-being negatively impacts income. The difficulty is that there is no definitive work pinpointing the direction of the causal relationship between income and psychological well-being, but studies are attempting to find out. Hence, this paper attempts to contribute to ongoing work with an IV estimation approach to determine the causal effects of psychological well-being on poverty. Using data provided by Haushofer and Shapiro, this paper finds evidence that an increase in income causes a reduction in depression and stress levels, along with increases in happiness and life satisfaction of the study participants. Additionally, it is found that these improvements in psychological well-being lead to increases in monthly household expenditure, especially health care. Furthermore, these findings indicate that when women receive a cash transfer, a significant proportion of that transfer is devoted to health care. All the estimates presented in the paper indicate that an improvement in economic well-being leads to an improvement in the mental health of the poor, which causes them to spend more and focus more on their health care. 2020-03-02T09:32:15Z 2020-03-02T09:32:15Z 2019 2020-03-02T08:42:13Z Master Thesis Masters MCom http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31428 eng application/pdf School of Economics Faculty of Commerce
spellingShingle poverty
consumption
psychology
well-being
cash transfers
development
Oaker, Brandon
The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty
thesis_degree_str Master's
title The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty
title_full The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty
title_fullStr The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty
title_full_unstemmed The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty
title_short The relationship between multidimensional psychological well-being and poverty
title_sort relationship between multidimensional psychological well being and poverty
topic poverty
consumption
psychology
well-being
cash transfers
development
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31428
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