Development Policies and Subjective Economic Wellbeing: Evidence From India

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant expansion in India’s development policy discourse accompanied by rights-based approach, grassroots transformation and socio-economic change. Consequently, impact evaluation has become central to development interventions. However, the evaluation of subjective measures within development policy discourse remains under-studied. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of development policies on subjective economic wellbeing (SEWB) in India. Utilising household data from India human development survey and applying ordered probit regression, we test medium-term impact of development policies on SEWB. The findings show that while development policy does have significant impact in driving SEWB, interaction among development policies also curates interesting perspectives. Moreover, evidence suggests that relative social and economic considerations are significant in driving SEWB. The article attempts to combine insights from the development discourse and an empirical approach to go beyond a critique and draw emphasis on SEWB in an emerging economy context. JEL Codes: O11, O53, R28