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Women's empowerment and domestic abuse: Experimental evidence from Vietnam

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  • Bulte, Erwin
  • Lensink, Robert

Abstract

Intimate partner violence is an important global health problem that policy makers seek to address by a variety of interventions, including efforts to promote “women's empowerment.” We use data from a randomized control trial in Vietnam and find that this strategy may backfire: women who participated in a gender and entrepreneurship training program suffer more frequent abuse than women in the control group. We conjecture that increased female income is the mechanism linking the training program to domestic violence. We also make a methodological contribution and show that the outcomes of our impact analysis depend on how we measure intimate partner violence.

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  • Bulte, Erwin & Lensink, Robert, 2019. "Women's empowerment and domestic abuse: Experimental evidence from Vietnam," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 172-191.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:115:y:2019:i:c:p:172-191
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2019.03.003
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    Cited by:

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    2. Seetha Menon, 2023. "The effect of domestic violence on cardiovascular risk," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 371-395, June.
    3. Somville, Vincent, 2019. "Having a Daughter Reduces Male Violence Against a Partner," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 24/2019, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    4. Deschênes, Sarah & Dumas, Christelle & Lambert, Sylvie, 2020. "Household resources and individual strategies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    5. Liu, Chia & Olamijuwon, Emmanuel, 2024. "The link between intimate partner violence and spousal resource inequality in lower- and middle-income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 345(C).
    6. Huis, Marloes & Lensink, Robert & Vu, Nhung & Hansen, Nina, 2019. "Impacts of the Gender and Entrepreneurship Together Ahead (GET Ahead) training on empowerment of female microfinance borrowers in Northern Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 46-61.
    7. Olivia Bertelli & Thomas Calvo & Emmanuelle Lavallée & Marion Mercier & Sandrine Mesplé-Somps, 2023. "Measuring insecurity-related experiences and preferences in a fragile State. A list experiment in Mali," Working Papers DT/2023/01, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    8. Akyol, Pelin & Kırdar, Murat Güray, 2022. "Compulsory schooling reform and intimate partner violence in Turkey," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    9. Laura Barros & Manuel Santos Silva, 2019. "#EleNão: Economic crisis, the political gender gap, and the election of Bolsonaro," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 242, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Cullen, Claire & Joshi, Sarthak & Vecci, Joseph & Talbot-Jones, Julia, 2024. "Female Empowerment and Male Backlash: Experimental Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 17450, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Balasubramanian, Pooja & Ibanez, Marcela & Khan, Sarah & Sahoo, Soham, 2024. "Does women's economic empowerment promote human development in low- and middle-income countries? A meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    12. Assefa, Thomas W. & Kadam, Aditi & Magnan, Nicholas & McCullough, Ellen & McGavock, Tamara, 2022. "Who is asking and how? The effects of enumerator gender and survey method in measuring intimate partner violence," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322543, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Dan Anderberg & Rachel Cassidy & Wendy Janssens & Anaya Dam & Morsink Karlijn & Anouk van Veldhoven, 2024. "Keeping the peace whilst getting your way: Information, persuasion and intimate partner violence," IFS Working Papers W24/22, Institute for Fiscal Studies.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Spousal violence; Gender training; Domestic abuse;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

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