Income and health in Latin America: Is there a gender gap?

The literature has shown that higher income is associated with lower levels of stress and better health.  This can be explained through several factors, such as superior quality leisure time, non-monotonous jobs, as well as more power and control both in the labor market and at home. Nevertheless, very few papers have identified if there is a difference in this relationship between working men and women.   Women have more work-related stress than men, since females possess less control and wages for the same types of jobs, higher probability to become unemployed, and fewer opportunities to ascend.  In addition, working women have comparatively more responsibilities at home than men and obviously more stress.  Therefore, one would hypothesize that higher income levels have a greater effect on women´s health than on their counterparts.  This paper provides evidence in favor of the latter, using data from 18 Latin American countries through the Gallup 2007 Survey.