Working Paper: NBER ID: w25627
Authors: Johannes Haushofer; Charlotte Ringdal; Jeremy P. Shapiro; Xiao Yu Wang
Abstract: In a previous study, we found an improvement in female empowerment after randomized unconditional cash transfers in Kenya (Haushofer and Shapiro 2016). Here we report detailed impacts of these transfers on physical and sexual intimate partner violence, and construct a theory to explain them. Transfers to women averaging USD 709 reduced physical and sexual violence (-0:26, -0:22 standard deviations). Transfers to men reduced physical violence (-0:18 SD). We find spillovers: physical violence towards non-recipient women in treatment villages decreased (-0:16 SD). We show theoretically that transfers to both men and women are needed to understand why violence occurs. Our theory suggests that husbands use physical violence to extract resources, but dislike it, while sexual violence is not used to extract resources, but is pleasurable.
Keywords: Intimate Partner Violence; Cash Transfers; Economic Empowerment; Kenya
JEL Codes: C93; D13; O12
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Unconditional cash transfers to women (F35) | Reduction in intimate partner violence (IPV) (J12) |
| Unconditional cash transfers to men (H84) | Reduction in intimate partner violence (IPV) (J12) |
| Unconditional cash transfers to women (F35) | Decrease in tolerance for IPV (J12) |
| Unconditional cash transfers to men (H84) | Decrease in marginal taste for violence (D11) |
| Reduction in IPV (J12) | Decrease in physical violence towards non-recipient women in treatment villages (J12) |