Article

Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence

Details

Citation

Anderberg D, Rainer H, Wadsworth J & Wilson T (2016) Unemployment and Domestic Violence: Theory and Evidence. Economic Journal, 126 (597), pp. 1947-1979. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12246

Abstract
Does rising unemployment really increase domestic violence as many commentators expect? The contribution of this article is to examine how changes in unemployment affect the incidence of domestic abuse. Theory predicts that male and female unemployment have opposite-signed effects on domestic abuse: an increase in male unemployment decreases the incidence of intimate partner violence, while an increase in female unemployment increases domestic abuse. Combining data on intimate partner violence from the British Crime Survey with locally disaggregated labour market data from the UK's Annual Population Survey, we find strong evidence in support of the theoretical prediction.

Journal
Economic Journal: Volume 126, Issue 597

StatusPublished
Publication date30/11/2016
Publication date online06/02/2015
Date accepted by journal18/11/2014
URLhttp://hdl.handle.net/1893/23001
PublisherWiley-Blackwell for Royal Economic Society
ISSN0013-0133