“Don’t Leave Me Aloneâ€: Unilateral Divorce and Intimate Partner Violence

Elisabetta Calabresi

Working Papers - Economics from Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa

Abstract: The paper investigates the dynamic effects of unilateral divorce legalization on intimate partner violence (IPV) in Mexico, building upon existing evidence. It adopts a heterogenous-robust event study, leveraging data from a repeated cross-sectional survey and exploiting the staggered implementation of the reform across Mexican states. The policy led to a 7.2% increase in physical IPV in the medium term, specifically between 5 to 9 years after its introduction. No significant effects were observed in shorter or longer time frames, nor on other forms of IPV. The main findings are robust across various sensitivity analyses, addressing implementation date discrepancies, potential confounders, and alternative estimation methods. The rise in physical IPV is primarily driven by women who remained married, with suggestive evidence indicating both a backlash effect and an instrumental use of violence. The analysis contributes to the literature by looking at long-term impacts, increasing the external validity of shorter-run effects, adopting a new methodology, and deeply investigating the underlying mechanisms. Overall, it underscores the importance of addressing gender norms together with enhancing women's outside options.

Keywords: unilateral divorce; intimate partner violence; heterogenous-robust event study; Mexico (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J12 K36 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 81 pages
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-law
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