Domestic violence and women's autonomy in developing countries: theory and evidence

Abstract

This paper sets out a simple non-cooperative model of resource allocation within the household in developing countries that incorporates domestic violence as a vehicle for enhancing bargaining power. We demonstrate that the extent of domestic violence faced by women is not necessarily declining in their reservation utilities, or necessarily increasing in their spouses'. Using the National Family Health Survey data of India for 1998-99, we isolate the effect of domestic violence on female autonomy, taking into account the possible endogeneity of domestic violence through the choice of appropriate instruments. We provide some evidence for the evolutionary theory of domestic violence, which argues that such violence stems from the jealousy caused by paternity uncertainty in our evolutionary past. The findings have strong policy implications suggesting that it will take more than an improvement in women's employment options to address the problem of spousal violence. JEL classification: J16, D7Violence conjugale et autonomie des femmes dans les pays en voie de développement : théorie et résultats. Ce mémoire met en place un modèle simple d'allocation de ressources sans collaborationà l'intérieur d'un ménage dans des pays en voie de développement où la violence conjugale est un véhicule utilisé pour accroître le pouvoir de marchandage. On montre que l'importance de la violence conjugale faite aux femmes ne décline pas nécessairement avec leurs exigences minimales, non plus qu'elle s'accroît avec les exigences minimales de leursépoux. A l'aide des résultats de l'Enquête nationale sur la santé des familles de l'Inde pour 1998-99, on précise l'effet de la violence conjugale sur l'autonomie des femmes, en tenant compte de l'endogénéité possible de la violence conjugaleà l'aide d'instruments appropriés. On fournit un certain supportà la théorieévolutionnaire de la Without implicating them, we would like to thank Domestic violence and women's autonomy 1223 violence conjugale, laquelle suggère que cette violenceémerge de la jalousie causée par l'incertitude de la paternité dans notre passéévolutionnaire. Les résultats ont de fortes implications pour la politique publique : ils suggèrent qu'il faudra beaucoup plus qu'une amélioration dans les opportunités d'emploi des femmes pour résoudre le problème de la violence conjugale.

Women's Intrahousehold Decision-Making Power and Their Health Status: Evidence from Rural Ethiopia

“…This result is consistent with the views of focus groups from villages in the north, which argued that living in the birthplace allows a woman to benefit from her family's and relatives' social support. The result found is in contrast to the findings of Mukesh Eswaran and Nisha Malhotra (2011), who used data from India. They found that a woman's freedom to decide about various aspects of her life declines in the presence of her own and her husband's natal family.…”

Rural Electrification and Domestic Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…The bargaining power of a woman is determined both by individual factors such as the relative economic position or cultural expectations regarding male and female gender roles. (ESWARAN AND MALHOTRA 2011, GOODE 1971, HEISE 2012, JEWKES 2002, LEVINSON 1989.…”

Employment Programmes for the Poor and Female Empowerment: The Effect of NREGS on Gender-based Violence in India

“…As a result, an increase in women's labour market income may increase the weight of her preferences in household resource allocation decisions. The increased bargaining power of women may improve her well-being or instead may increase household conflict as it decreases the husband's decisionmaking power (Eswaran & Malhotra, 2011). Anderson and Eswaran (2009) show that the effect of wage income on female autonomy is greater than that of non-labour income.…”

“…This supports the male backlash hypothesis argued in the sociology literature. Eswaran and Malhotra (2011) showed that domestic violence impinges on female autonomy for husbands with low outside options. Chin (2012) finds that female employment decreases domestic violence among Indian women with this result being explained by the fact that the empowerment effect is larger than the male dominance effect.…”