**Table 8. Explaining Social Norms**

||**(1)**|**(2)**|**(3)**|**(4)**|**(5)**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||PNB Index -<br>HH Roles|PNB Index -<br>Public Space|SNE Index -<br>HH Roles|SNE Index -<br>Public Space|Sanctions<br>Index|
|Respondent is female|-0.00|-0.03|-0.01|-0.07*|0.02|
||(0.03)|(0.04)|(0.02)|(0.04)|(0.11)|
|Respondent’s age in years,|0.00|-0.00|-0.00|-0.00**|-0.00|
|squared|(0.00)|(0.00)|(0.00)|(0.00)|(0.00)|
|Years of education, derived|-0.01|-0.02*|-0.00|-0.02***|-0.08***|
|from education level|(0.01)|(0.01)|(0.01)|(0.01)|(0.02)|
|Indicator for respondent|-0.01|0.05|-0.04|-0.00|0.33|
|having child younger than 5<br>years|(0.02)|(0.04)|(0.03)|(0.05)|(0.23)|
|Respondent lives in urban area|0.00|0.02|-0.08|-0.08|-0.93*|
||(0.05)|(0.13)|(0.05)|(0.13)|(0.48)|
|Log of household's total|0.01*|0.00|0.00|-0.01|0.11|
|income minus working<br>female’s earned income (NPR)|(0.01)|(0.01)|(0.01)|(0.01)|(0.07)|
|Madhesh Province|1.09***|0.68***|0.97***|0.82***|-0.28|
||(0.08)|(0.11)|(0.06)|(0.10)|(0.54)|
|Gandaki Province|-0.16**|-0.31***|-0.23***|-0.28***|-1.65***|
||(0.06)|(0.08)|(0.06)|(0.09)|(0.46)|
|Sudurpashchim Province|0.46***|0.50***|0.50***|0.30**|-1.76**|
||(0.08)|(0.13)|(0.14)|(0.14)|(0.66)|
|Respondent belongs to|0.13*|0.00|0.20***|0.09|0.72**|
|<br>Madheshi (non-Dalit) ethnic|(0.06)|(0.21)|(0.05)|(0.14)|(0.34)|
|group||||||
|Migrant HH|-0.00|-0.03|-0.01|-0.00|-0.52*|
||(0.03)|(0.05)|(0.03)|(0.04)|(0.30)|
|At least one among MIL and|-0.01|-0.04|-0.00|-0.04|0.02|
|<br>FIL live in the HH|(0.02)|(0.05)|(0.03)|(0.04)|(0.19)|
|Constant|0.32**|0.60**|0.63***|1.21***|17.16***|
||(0.14)|(0.25)|(0.15)|(0.24)|(0.97)|
|Observations|2,000|2,000|2,000|2,000|2,000|
|Adjusted R-squared|0.66|0.27|0.63|0.34|0.08|

_Notes_ : (1) Higher the outcome variables, higher the conservativeness of beliefs and social expectations and higher the expected sanctions. (2) Reference group for province is Bagmati Province. (3) SEs clustered at the ward level. (4 Robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.1. SEs clustered at the ward level.

Contrary to intuition, we find no evidence of respondents in rural areas being more likely to hold conservative beliefs either about norms around women’s household roles, or about women being in the public space as compared to those in urban areas. However, those in rural areas are more likely to expect negative sanctions for breaching a norm. These variables, together, explain between 27 and 66 percent of the variation in the social norms indices, and 8 percent of the variation in the sanctions index.

Geographically, respondents from Madhesh and Sudurpashchim Provinces are more likely to hold conservative beliefs and social expectations, as compared to those from Bagmati Province. On the other hand, respondents from Gandaki Province are more likely to be liberal. Relatedly, those who belong to the Madheshi ethnic group tend to be more conservative. These differences are supported by earlier literature showing that Nepal’s socio-cultural practices differ along the lines of castes and ethnicities. For example, Chakravarty et al. (2019) find that in Southern Nepal (Terai and Madhesh), women are more frequently confined to the 24