Railway Construction and Violence against Women: Evidence from Mexico’s Tren Maya

Large infrastructure projects are promoted as development strategies, yet their social consequences are rarely studied. We examine how the construction of Mexico’s Tren Maya, a 1,554-kilometer railway, affected violence against women. Exploiting the staggered start of construction across railway sections in a difference-in-differences design, we find that construction increased assault-related hospitalisations of women by 57.8%, driven by intimate partner violence (67.5%) and non-partner assaults (50.8%). Reported crimes of sexual abuse rose by 40.2%. We find no increase in intimate partner violence against men, while estimates for other male outcomes are not informative. Construction also reshaped local labour markets, expanding jobs in the male-dominated transport sector and female-dominated food services. These shifts are consistent with two potential channels: a male backlash against women’s employment, increasing intimate partner violence, and an influx of male workers, increasing assaults against women in public spaces.