Intimate Partner Violence and Income: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit

Abstract

We estimate the impact of an exogenous increase in income on the prevalence and counts of intimate partner violence (IPV). We exploit time and family-size variation in the earned income tax credit (EITC) by comparing victimization of women with one child or more with that of women with no children before and after the 1993 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Expansion of the credit reduces both reports of physical or sexual assaults and counts of physical or sexual assaults per 100 women surveyed; the effects were strongest for groups more likely to experience IPV and be eligible for the EITC: unmarried women and unmarried Black women. If increased income is the only channel by which the EITC decreases IPV, an additional $1,000 of after-tax income decreases physical or sexual violence toward unmarried low-educated women by 9.73 percent.