Does Property Ownership by Women Reduce Domestic Violence? A Case of Latin America

Gahramanov, Emin and Gaibulloev, Khusrav and Younas, Javed (2020): Does Property Ownership by Women Reduce Domestic Violence? A Case of Latin America.

Abstract

It is widely believed that empowering women via various material means increases women’s outside options and, thereby, makes them less vulnerable to intimate partner violence. However, the effect of such empowerment on domestic violence could be subtle particularly in countries with pre-existing high tolerance to violence, weak law enforcement and male institutional domination. Using cross-sectional household-level survey data for Latin American countries, we test the effect of property ownership by women on domestic violence. The results show that a woman’s sole property ownership is not associated with less domestic violence against her; sometimes the correlation is even positive. However, married women who co-own the property are less likely to face domestic abuse by husbands.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Domestic Violence; Property Ownership; Women Empowerment
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage ; Marital Dissolution ; Family Structure ; Domestic Abuse; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender ; Non-labor Discrimination

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