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Do improved property rights decrease violence against women in India?

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  • Amaral, Sofia

Abstract

This paper uses the staggered implementation of a legal change in inheritance law in India to estimate the effect of women's improved access to inheritance on violence against women. I find that the aggregate rate of violence against women ( including female suicides) fell. This fall is due to changes in police-reported violence as well as in female mortality. The law did not change male mortality or other forms of non-gender based crime. Further, at the individual level I find that spouses eligible for inheritance are 17 percent less likely to be victims of domestic violence. These findings are explained by an improvement in marriage market negotiations and this led to women marrying partners that consume less alcohol.

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  • Amaral, Sofia, 2017. "Do improved property rights decrease violence against women in India?," ISER Working Paper Series 2017-13, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2017-13
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    Cited by:

    1. Nayana Bose & Shreyasee Das, 2021. "Women's Inheritance Rights and Fertility Decisions: Evidence from India," DETU Working Papers 2101, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    2. Margaux Suteau, 2020. "Inheritance Rights and Women's Empowerment in the Labor and Marriage Markets," THEMA Working Papers 2020-17, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    3. Tumen, Semih & Ulucan, Hakan, 2019. "Empowered or Impoverished: The Impact of Panic Buttons on Domestic Violence," IZA Discussion Papers 12847, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Akyol, Pelin & Kırdar, Murat Güray, 2022. "Compulsory schooling reform and intimate partner violence in Turkey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Aparna Mathur & Sita N Slavov, 2017. "The impact of legislative change on reported domestic violence against women in India," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2655-2664.
    6. Eleonora Guarnieri & Helmut Rainer, 2018. "Female Empowerment and Male Backlash," CESifo Working Paper Series 7009, CESifo.
    7. Sapkal Rahul Suresh, 2017. "From Mother to Daughter: Does Equal Inheritance Property Laws Reform Improve Female Labor Supply and Educational Attainments in India?," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-36, April.
    8. Astghik Mavisakalyan & Anu Rammohan, 2021. "Female autonomy in household decision-making and intimate partner violence: evidence from Pakistan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 255-280, March.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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