What Works in Reducing Economic Violence Against Women: Global Evidence From a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Economic violence against women includes control and exploitation of economic resources, employment sabotage, and partners’ refusal to contribute to household necessities. This form of intimate partner violence threatens women’s economic welfare, independence, and health. Despite its significance, evidence on effective prevention strategies remains limited. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluate global experimental evidence on interventions addressing economic violence against women. We systematically searched MEDLINE and Web of Science, supplemented by hand searches, for randomized controlled trials measuring economic violence among partnered women. We identified 49 studies across 31 countries, with a total sample of 106,868 individuals and 397 effect size estimates. Interventions took place in low and middle-income countries and ranged from economic empowerment programs—such as cash transfers and business training—to health initiatives and gender-transformative approaches, with most employing multi-component designs (n = 34). Only 12 studies explicitly defined economic violence as an outcome, while most assessed individual subcomponents only, particularly economic control. Victimization was the primary measure (n = 48), and perpetration was rarely assessed (n = 6). Our meta-analysis found a significant reduction in economic violence (Hedges’ g −0.076, p < .01). Interventions targeting couples and those in South Asia showed the largest effects. While interventions show promise, future programs require greater awareness of economic violence in intervention design and should prioritize couple-based approaches. Future research needs to develop validated, culturally adapted measures to capture all forms of economic violence, address the lack of perpetration data, and expand studies to high-income countries to better understand the broader dynamics of economic violence.