Abstract
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread global phenomenon with major costs. It presents several empirical challenges to researchers, including data quality issues, simultaneous and interrelated risk factors, and nuanced responses to policy that depend on circumstances within the household, neighborhood, and culture. This has left an opening for economists to complement existing research on the topic, enough to merit a thorough review of this literature. This chapter reviews economists’ work on studying the theories, causes, and policies to reduce intimate partner violence. It examines theories of household bargaining, expressive violence, instrumental violence, male backlash, exposure reduction, and cultural norms. It then considers the research on how economic factors, including income shocks, transfer programs, gendered labor demand, employment status, and human capital investments influence IPV. Finally, there is a discussion of research on the efficacy of specific policy interventions, including legal and law enforcement policies, unilateral divorce, women’s property ownership and inheritance rights, sanctuary policies, alcohol regulation, shelter services, and interventions implemented via randomized controlled trials.
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The authors are deeply grateful for Albina Khatiwoda for her outstanding research assistance. The article has benefitted from valuable comments of the editors. There is no conflict of interest.
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Hsu, L., Henke, A. (2022). Intimate Partner Violence. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_309-1
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Intimate Partner Violence- Published:
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_309-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_309-1