Does Income Inequality Increase Violence Against Women? An Instrumental Variable Approach

Violence against women is a violation of basic human rights and a global health problem. Although the literature is rich in studies on the determinants of violence against women, little attention has been given to the potential impact of income inequality on violence against women. The present paper aims to investigate the impact of the state income inequality on violence against women in India, a country where violence against women one of the highest in the world. We use data on a nationally representative sample of 69,704 women from the third National Family Health Survey for India, conducted in 2005–2006. We argue that income inequality increases the risk of experiencing violence by eroding social capital in the living community. To estimate the causal impact of economic inequality on violence against women and avoid endogeneity, we rely on an instrumental variable approach. As the first step, we use simple standard regression models and find that state income inequality increases intimate partner violence as well as violence by anyone other than her partner. When tackling the endogeneity issue, our findings suggest that income inequality increases the risk of violence by anyone other than the partner, but it did not increase the risk of spousal violence. The study’s findings are robust to different regression techniques.