IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/osloec/2020_001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Public work and private violence

Author

Listed:
  • Kjelsrud, Anders

    (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo)

  • Sjurgard, Kristin Vikan

    (Dept. of Economics, University of Oslo)

Abstract

Violence against women is persisting in many parts of the world. At the same time, there is a global trend of increased female labour force participation. In this paper we study the effect on intimate partner violence of a large public work program in India that explicitly encourages female participation (MGNREGA). Based on detailed administrative data, we show that the work program leads to more violence against women. We argue that the effect could be explained by a "male backlash" mechanism, where husbands exercise violence to regain power within marriage.

Suggested Citation

  • Kjelsrud, Anders & Sjurgard, Kristin Vikan, 2020. "Public work and private violence," Memorandum 1/2020, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:osloec:2020_001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sv.uio.no/econ/english/research/Memoranda/working-papers/pdf-files/2020/memo-01-2020.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan Anderberg & Helmut Rainer & Jonathan Wadsworth & Tanya Wilson, 2016. "Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(597), pages 1947-1979, November.
    2. Rachel Heath & Seema Jayachandran, 2016. "The Causes and Consequences of Increased Female Education and Labor Force Participation in Developing Countries," NBER Working Papers 22766, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Erica M. Field & Rohini Pande & Natalia Rigol & Simone G. Schaner & Charity Troyer Moore, 2019. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Affects Labor Supply and Gender Norms," NBER Working Papers 26294, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Eleonora Guarnieri & Helmut Rainer, 2018. "Female Empowerment and Male Backlash," CESifo Working Paper Series 7009, CESifo.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Emir Kamenica & Jessica Pan, 2015. "Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 571-614.
    6. Gupta, Bhanu & Mukhopadhyay, Abhiroop, 2016. "Local funds and political competition: Evidence from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 14-30.
    7. Clément Imbert & John Papp, 2015. "Labor Market Effects of Social Programs: Evidence from India's Employment Guarantee," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 233-263, April.
    8. Ana Tur-Prats, 2017. "Unemployment and intimate-partner violence: A gender-identity approach," Working Papers 963, Barcelona School of Economics.
    9. Stephan Klasen & Janneke Pieters, 2015. "What Explains the Stagnation of Female Labor Force Participation in Urban India?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(3), pages 449-478.
    10. Dan Anderberg & Helmut Rainer & Jonathan Wadsworth & Tanya Wilson, 2016. "Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(597), pages 1947-1979, November.
    11. Sara Cools & Martin Flatø & Andreas Kotsadam, 2020. "Rainfall shocks and intimate partner violence in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(3), pages 377-390, May.
    12. Cools, Sara & Kotsadam, Andreas, 2017. "Resources and Intimate Partner Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 211-230.
    13. Angelucci Manuela, 2008. "Love on the Rocks: Domestic Violence and Alcohol Abuse in Rural Mexico," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-43, October.
    14. Andreas Kotsadam & Espen Villanger, 2020. "Jobs and Intimate Partner Violence - Evidence from a Field Experiment in Ethiopia," CESifo Working Paper Series 8108, CESifo.
    15. Amy Farmer & Jill Tiefenthaler, 1997. "An Economic Analysis of Domestic Violence," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 337-358.
    16. Erica Field & Rohini Pande & Natalia Rigol & Simone Schaner & Charity Troyer Moore, 2021. "On Her Own Account: How Strengthening Women's Financial Control Impacts Labor Supply and Gender Norms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(7), pages 2342-2375, July.
    17. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    18. Maiorano, Diego, 2014. "The Politics of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Andhra Pradesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 95-105.
    19. Ellen Ehmke, 2016. "India's Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act: Assessing the quality of access and adequacy of benefits in MGNREGS public works," International Social Security Review, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 69(2), pages 3-27, April.
    20. Ravi, Shamika & Engler, Monika, 2015. "Workfare as an Effective Way to Fight Poverty: The Case of India’s NREGS," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 57-71.
    21. Anna Aizer, 2010. "The Gender Wage Gap and Domestic Violence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1847-1859, September.
    22. Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Kambhampati, Uma & Rawlings, Samantha & Siddique, Zahra, 2018. "Intimate Partner Violence and the Business Cycle," IZA Discussion Papers 11274, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    23. Mukesh Eswaran & Nisha Malhotra, 2011. "Domestic violence and women's autonomy in developing countries: theory and evidence," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 44(4), pages 1222-1263, November.
    24. Seema Vyas & Charlotte Watts, 2009. "How does economic empowerment affect women's risk of intimate partner violence in low and middle income countries? A systematic review of published evidence," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(5), pages 577-602.
    25. Sam Asher & Paul Novosad, 2017. "Politics and Local Economic Growth: Evidence from India," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(1), pages 229-273, January.
    26. Sofia Amaral & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Rudra Sensarma, 2015. "Employment Programmes for the Poor and Female Empowerment: The Effect of NREGS on Gender-based Violence in India," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 27(2), pages 199-218, July.
    27. repec:ilo:ilowps:461714 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Gulzar, Saad & Pasquale, Benjamin J., 2017. "Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Development: Evidence from India," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(1), pages 162-183, February.
    29. Luke, Nancy & Munshi, Kaivan, 2011. "Women as agents of change: Female income and mobility in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 1-17, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Díaz, Juan-José & Saldarriaga, Victor, 2023. "A drop of love? Rainfall shocks and spousal abuse: Evidence from rural Peru," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    2. Marco Colagrossi & Claudio Deiana & Andrea Geraci & Ludovica Giua, 2022. "Hang up on stereotypes: Domestic violence and an anti‐abuse helpline campaign," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(4), pages 585-611, October.
    3. Teresa Molina & Mari Tanaka, 2023. "Globalization and Female Empowerment: Evidence from Myanmar," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 71(2), pages 519-565.
    4. Sara Cools & Martin Flatø & Andreas Kotsadam, 2020. "Rainfall shocks and intimate partner violence in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 57(3), pages 377-390, May.
    5. Andreas Kotsadam & Espen Villanger, 2020. "Jobs and Intimate Partner Violence - Evidence from a Field Experiment in Ethiopia," CESifo Working Paper Series 8108, CESifo.
    6. Tur-Prats, Ana, 2021. "Unemployment and intimate partner violence: A Cultural approach," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 27-49.
    7. Ana Tur-Prats, 2019. "Family Types and Intimate Partner Violence: A Historical Perspective," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(5), pages 878-891, December.
    8. González, Libertad & Rodríguez-Planas, Núria, 2020. "Gender norms and intimate partner violence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 223-248.
    9. Sonia Bhalotra & Uma Kambhampati & Samantha Rawlings & Zahra Siddique, 2021. "Intimate Partner Violence: The Influence of Job Opportunities for Men and Women," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(2), pages 461-479.
    10. Siwan Anderson, 2022. "Unbundling female empowerment," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1671-1701, November.
    11. Zhang, Yinjunjie (Jacquelyn) & Breunig, Robert, 2021. "Gender Norms and Domestic Abuse: Evidence From Australia," IZA Discussion Papers 14225, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Sofia Amaral, 2015. "Do Improved Property Rights Decrease Violence Against Women in India?," Discussion Papers 15-10, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    13. Alberto Alesina & Benedetta Brioschi & Eliana La Ferrara, 2021. "Violence Against Women: A Cross‐cultural Analysis for Africa," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 70-104, January.
    14. Guarnieri, Eleonora & Rainer, Helmut, 2021. "Colonialism and female empowerment: A two-sided legacy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    15. Punarjit Roychowdhury & Gaurav Dhamija, 2022. "Don't cross the line: Bounding the causal effect of hypergamy violation on domestic violence in India," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(4), pages 1952-1978, October.
    16. Sarma, Nayantara, 2022. "Domestic violence and workfare: An evaluation of India’s MGNREGS," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    17. Sofia Amaral & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Rudra Sensarma, 2015. "Public Work Programs and Gender-based Violence: The Case of NREGA in India," Discussion Papers 15-09, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    18. Ana Tur-Prats, 2017. "Unemployment and intimate-partner violence: A gender-identity approach," Economics Working Papers 1564, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    19. Mohammad Amin & Asif M. Islam & Augusto Lopez‐Claros, 2021. "Absent laws and missing women: Can domestic violence legislation reduce female mortality?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 2113-2132, November.
    20. Boggiano, Bárbara, 2024. "Long-term effects of the Paraguayan War (1864-1870) on intimate partner violence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 177-224.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    intimate partner violence; female employment; public work;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other
    • 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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:osloec:2020_001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Mari Strønstad Øverås (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/souiono.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.