Health Perception Impact on Happiness Disparity in Gender

This paper attempts to explain the happiness gap between men and women using health perception difference. Results show that health perception disparity can be a determinant factor of happiness disparity. The study uses body mass index (BMI) as an instrumental variable (IV) to eliminate the reverse causality problem caused by a strong correlation between self-evaluation of health and happiness. Results suggest that if health perception disparity increases by 1, happiness disparity increases by 0.325, implying relatively better or poorer evaluation of health can generate happiness gap between genders. This study analyzes the happiness disparity between the sexes in an economic framework and clarifies the effect of health perception using an IV.