Does Trade Liberalization Foster Intimate Partner Violence?

Abstract

We exploit unexpected and drastic unilateral tariff reductions in Peru during the 2000s. In districts where male employment was more vulnerable to these reductions, we observe a statistically significant increase in intimate partner violence relative to less vulnerable districts. Our findings show that several causal paths may be at play and appear to highlight the fact that these paths may complement and even exacerbate each other. Our findings hold when applying a broad array of robustness tests.