Economic Policy and Psychological Violence: The Hidden Costs of Spain’s Minimum Wage Reform

Yolanda F. Rebollo-Sanz () and Núria Rodríguez-Planas ()
Additional contact information
Yolanda F. Rebollo-Sanz: Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Núria Rodríguez-Planas: City University of New York (CUNY), Queens College; Institut d’Economia de Barcelona (IEB); Universitat de Barcelona

No 25.09, Working Papers from Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of a 22% minimum wage increase in Spain on January 2019 on intimate partner violence using a doubly robust difference-in-differences strategy with inverse probability weighting and the nationally representative Survey of Violence Against Women. We find no effect of the reform on physical or sexual violence. Furthermore, treated women—those with a high predicted probability of working at minimum-wage jobs—experienced a 42% increase in psychological violence. Labor-market analysis of survey respondents reveals that the reform led to a substitution away from female employment towards her partner’s employment, reducing women’s bargaining power within the household. For women whose partner is five years older, the increase in violence is not accompanied with lower female labor-market engagement, providing evidence of alternative mechanisms, such as disrupted gender roles, or instrumental violence. These findings highlight unintended consequences of wage policy and highlight the need for complementary policies and services addressing the dangers of gender-based and domestic violence.

Keywords: Minimum wage increase; doubly robust difference-in-differences with inverse probability weighting self-reported psychological; physical; and/or sexual abuse by partner (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J16 J31 J38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-inv and nep-lma
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.upo.es/serv/bib/wps/econ2509.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pab:wpaper:25.09

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics Carretera de Utrera km.1, 41013 Sevilla. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Publicación Digital - UPO ().