ABSTRACT

This study examines whether modernisation and demographic change explain subnational household variations in India using state-level data from six rounds of the National Sample Survey harmonised by IPUMS-International. Results highlight significant regional differences in living arrangements, mainly between south India, where joint households are rare, and selected states located in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where joint households are most prevalent. Key indicators of modernisation (urbanisation, occupational diversification, educational expansion) and demographic change explain roughly half of these differences, although modernisation indicators have a much weaker explanatory power than demographic ones. Further analyses show that men's rising age at marriage is linked to a modest increase in nuclear households, whereas educational expansion may have hindered this increase. These findings support the claim that the preference for joint households has long been considerably weaker – if at all present – in selected southern states, a nuance largely ignored in explanations of household change in India.

摘要

本研究使用来自 IPUMS-International 协调的六轮国家抽样调查的州级数据，检验现代化和人口变化是否可以解释印度次国家家庭的变化。结果突出了生活安排的显着区域差异，主要是在印度南部，联合家庭很少见，而位于印度-恒河平原的选定邦之间，联合家庭最为普遍。现代化的关键指标（城市化、职业多样化、教育扩张）和人口变化大约解释了这些差异的一半，尽管现代化指标的解释力比人口统计指标弱得多。进一步的分析表明，男性结婚年龄的提高与核心家庭的适度增加有关，而教育扩张可能阻碍了这种增长。这些调查结果支持这样的说法，即在选定的南部各州，对联合家庭的偏好长期以来一直相当弱（如果有的话），在解释印度的家庭变化时，这一细微差别在很大程度上被忽略了。