Remittances and domestic violence

Abstract

This paper estimates the effects of money transfers sent by relatives or acquaintances, better known as remittances, on intimate partner violence (IPV) against married women living in Mexico. Using three waves of a national state-based representative survey specialized in violence against women, and state-fixed effects regression models, the results show that receiving remittances increases the likelihood of IPV by 6%. We document several mechanisms for this detrimental effect of receiving remittances on IPV. Among these mechanisms, we find that receiving remittances is positively correlated to men's alcohol consumption, a factor associated with IPV, and that receiving remittances is negatively correlated to the probability of men being employed, suggesting that men exert violence against women to compensate for the lack of income with remittances.