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Self-Reported Health and Gender: The Role of Social Norms

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  • Caroli, Eve

    (PSL Université Paris Dauphine)

  • Weber-Baghdiguian, Lexane

    (Université Paris-Dauphine)

Abstract

We investigate the role of social norms in accounting for differences in self-reported health as reported by men and women. Using the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS, 2010), we first replicate the standard result that women report worse health than men, whatever the health outcome we consider – i.e. general self-assessed health but also more specific symptoms such as skin problems, backache, muscular pain in upper and lower limbs, headache and eyestrain, stomach ache, respiratory difficulties, depression and anxiety, fatigue and insomnia. We then proxy social norms by the gender structure of the workplace environment and study how the latter affects self-reported health for men and women separately. Our findings indicate that individuals in workplaces where women are a majority tend to report worse health than individuals employed in male-dominated work environments, be they men or women. These results are robust to controlling for a large array of working condition indicators, which allows us to rule out that the poorer health status reported by individuals working in female-dominated environments could be due to worse job quality. We interpret this evidence as suggesting that social norms associated with specific gender environments play an important role in explaining differences in health-reporting behaviours across gender, at least in the workplace.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroli, Eve & Weber-Baghdiguian, Lexane, 2016. "Self-Reported Health and Gender: The Role of Social Norms," IZA Discussion Papers 9670, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp9670
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    2. Bellmann, Lutz & Hübler, Olaf, 2019. "Personal Attitudes, Job Characteristics and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 12597, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Virginie Comblon & Karine Marazyan, 2017. "Labor Supply Responses to Chronic Illness in Senegal," Working Papers hal-04096137, HAL.
    4. Quitterie Roquebert & Jonathan Sicsic & Thomas Rapp, 2021. "Health measures and long-term care use in the European frail population," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 22(3), pages 405-423, April.
    5. Chris Muris & Pedro Raposo & Sotiris Vandoros, 2020. "A dynamic ordered logit model with fixed effects," Papers 2008.05517, arXiv.org.
    6. Lazarevič, Patrick & Brandt, Martina, 2020. "Diverging ideas of health? Comparing the basis of health ratings across gender, age, and country," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    7. Quitterie Roquebert, 2022. "Can informal care help preserve mental health in nursing homes? Evidence of gender effects," Working Papers of BETA 2022-08, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    8. Bonsang, Eric & Caroli, Eve & Garrouste, Clémentine, 2021. "Gender heterogeneity in self-reported hypertension," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    9. Sunoong Hwang & Heeju Shin, 2023. "Gender Gap in Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea: A Decomposition Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-14, January.
    10. Fabrice Etilé & Pierre-Yves Geoffard, 2020. "Anxiety increases the willingness to be exposed to covid-19 risk among young adults in France," Working Papers hal-03005718, HAL.
    11. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Munyanyi, Musharavati Ephraim & Prakash, Kushneel & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "Locus of control and the gender gap in mental health," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 740-758.
    12. Golo Henseke, 2018. "Good jobs, good pay, better health? The effects of job quality on health among older European workers," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 19(1), pages 59-73, January.
    13. Thi Thao Nguyen & Kim Huong Nguyen & Nicholas Rohde, 2024. "Economic Disparities, Life Events, and the Gender Mental Health Gap," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 1053-1100, September.
    14. Lutz Bellmann & Olaf Hübler, 2022. "Personality traits, working conditions and health: an empirical analysis based on the German Linked Personnel Panel, 2013–2017," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 283-318, February.
    15. Blázquez, Maite & Sánchez-Mangas, Rocío, 2023. "General and COVID19-specific emotional stress: Religious practice as a potential coping strategy," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    16. Fabrice Etilé & Pierre-Yves Geoffard, 2020. "Anxiety Increases the Willingness the Willingness to Be Exposed to Covid-19 Risk among Young Adults in France," PSE Working Papers halshs-03066539, HAL.
    17. Thomas Barnay & Éric Defebvre, 2018. "L'influence des conditions de travail passées sur la santé et la consommation de médicaments auto-déclarées des retraités," Post-Print hal-02070314, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    health; gender; social norms; job quality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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