the second option is to predict a macrovariable gender differences using only individuallevels factors xt to estimate equation for each country separately it allows for countryspecific variation in the gender happiness gap considered as a societal effect that could vary according to the country and its definition of gender roles it assumes the gender happiness gap being related to sociological construction rather than a biological effect associated with sex differences that would have involved a similar difference across countries in particular the collection of information on genderbased discrimination in social institutions is recent and as such the sigi is only available in one wave thus limiting our empirical study to a crosscountry analysis