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Divorce laws and intimate partner violence: Evidence from Mexico

2021; Elsevier BV; Volume: 150; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102623

1872-6089

Aixa García-Ramos,

Family Dynamics and Relationships

This paper examines whether divorce laws affect intimate partner violence (IPV) in the context of a developing country. Exploiting the state-level variation in the timing of the introduction of unilateral and no-fault divorce in Mexico, I estimate the causal effect of easier access to divorce on male-to-female IPV. The results show that IPV does not change in the short term, whereas it increases by 3.7 percentage points in the long term. These results are driven by women who remain married after the reform and they are consistent with IPV being used to prevent women from leaving the marriage.