Family Types and Intimate-Partner Violence: A Historical Perspective

Ana Tur-Prats
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Ana Tur-Prats

No 835, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: This paper examines the historical origins of violence against women, in contrast to earlier literature, which focused only on short-term determinants. It analyses the relation-ship between traditional family patterns (stem versus nuclear) and intimate-partner violence (IPV). Stem families are those in which one child stays in the parental household with spouse and children, so that at least two generations live together. I model the behavior of a traditional peasant family and show how coresidence with a mother-in-law increases a wife's contribution to farmwork. This increased contribution is shown to potentially decrease the level of violence, since the wife's reduced productivity acts as a deterrent. In my empirical analysis I use Spanish data, as Spain offers IPV measures of the highest quality as well as a persistent geographical distribution of family types. Results show that areas where stem families were socially predominant in the past currently have a lower IPV rate. I control for a large number of contemporary, historical, and geographical variables. To address causality, I use the stages and differences in the Christian conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (722-1492) as an instrument for the different family types. My instrumental variable results are consistent with my original findings.

Keywords: gender inequality; cultural norms; persistence; inheritance; coresidence; Christian conquest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 J12 N43 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hme
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Family Types and Intimate Partner Violence: A Historical Perspective (2019)
Working Paper: Family types and intimate-partner violence: A historical perspective (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bge:wpaper:835

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