Domestic Violence and Women's Autonomy: Evidence from India

This paper sets out a simple non-cooperative model of resource allocation within the household in developing countries that incorporates domestic violence as an instrument for enhancing bargaining power. We demonstrate that the extent of domestic violence faced by women is not necessarily declining in their reservation utilities, nor necessarily increasing in their spouses’. Using the National Family Health Survey data of India for 1998-99, we isolate the e¤ect of domestic violence on female autonomy, taking into account the possible two-way causality 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 …ndings 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. Key Words: domestic violence, female autonomy, developing countries, patriarchy, evolution JEL Classi…cation Number : J16, D7 Address: Department of Economics, University of British Columbia, #997-1873 East Mall, Vancouver, B.C., CANADA V6T 1Z1. Email: [email protected] and [email protected] Acknowledgements: We would like to thank participants of the DIET Workshop of the Department of Economics and the CWAG brownbag workshop of the Center for Women and Gender Studies (both at the University of British Columbia), and also Shilpi Kapur for comments on a preliminary version of this paper. A grant from UBC’s Hampton Research Fund is gratefully acknowledged.