COVID-19 Lockdown and Domestic Violence: Evidence from Internet-Search Behavior in 11 Countries

Inés Berniell and Gabriel Facchini

CEDLAS, Working Papers from CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Abstract: We study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on domestic violence in 11 countries with different ex-ante incidence of domestic violence (DV) and lockdown intensity. We use a novel measure of DV incidents that allows us to make cross-country comparisons: a Google search intensity index of DV-related topics. Our difference-indifference estimates show an increase in DV search intensity after lockdown (31%), with larger effects as more people stayed at home (measured with Google Mobility Data). The peak of the increase in DV appears, on average, 7 weeks after the introduction of the lockdown. While we observe that the positive impacts on DV is a widespread phenomenon, the effect in developed countries is more than twice as strong as in Latin American countries. We show that the difference in impact correlates with the intensity of compliance with stay-at-home measures in the two groups.

JEL-codes: I18 J12 J16 J18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: COVID-19 lockdown and domestic violence: Evidence from internet-search behavior in 11 countries (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dls:wpaper:0273

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