Three quarters of all violence against women is perpetrated by domestic partners. I study both the economic causes and consequences of domestic violence. I find that decreases in the male-female wage gap reduce violence against women, consistent with a household bargaining model. The relationship between the wage gap and violence suggests that reductions in violence may provide an alternative explanation for the well-established finding that child health improves when mothers control a greater share of the household resources. Using instrumental variable and propsensity score techniques to control for selection into violent relationships, I find that violence against pregnant women negatively affects the health of their children at birth. This work sheds new light on the health production process as well as observed income gradients in health and suggests that in addition to addressing concerns of equity, pay parity can also improve the health of American women and children via reductions in violence.
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number
13494.
Length: Date of creation: Oct 2007 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:13494
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Find related papers by JEL classification: I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Audra J. Bowlus & Shannon Seitz, 2006.
"Domestic Violence, Employment, And Divorce,"
International Economic Review,
Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 47(4), pages 1113-1149, November.
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Anna Aizer, 2007.
"Neighborhood Violence and Urban Youth,"
NBER Chapters,
in: The Problems of Disadvantaged Youth: An Economic Perspective, pages 275-307
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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