Do Improved Property Rights Decrease Violence Against Women in India?

Sofia Amaral

Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Birmingham

Abstract: This paper uses the staggered implementation of a legal change in inheritance law in India to estimate the effect of women's improved access to inheritance on both police-reported and self-reported violence against women. I find a decrease in reported violence and female unnatural deaths following the amendments. Further, women eligible for inheritance are 17 percent less likely to be victims of domestic violence. These findings are explained by an improvement in husbands' behaviour and via better marriage market negotiations. However, I find little evidence of changes in women's participation in decision-making.

Keywords: Crime; Domestic Violence; Property Rights; Intra-household (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J16 K42 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2015-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-dev, nep-hme and nep-law
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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https://repec.cal.bham.ac.uk/pdf/15-10.pdf

Related works:
Working Paper: Do improved property rights decrease violence against women in India? (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bir:birmec:15-10

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