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dc.titleDroughts and Domestic Violence: Measuring the Gender-Climate Nexus
dc.contributor.authorAguilar-Gómez, Sandra
dc.contributor.authorSalazar-Díaz, Andrea
dc.contributor.orgunitGender and Diversity Division
dc.coverageMexico
dc.date.available2025-01-10T00:01:00
dc.date.issue2025-01-10T00:01:00
dc.description.abstractEvery year, 245 million women are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV). Climate change is hypothesized to exacerbate this figure through its disruptive impact on household livelihoods, among other channels. However, little causal evidence exists on this aspect of the climate-gender nexus, partly due to measurement challenges that have contributed to gaps in the literature. In this paper, we use three different IPV data sources to examine the effect of drought in Mexico and the role of agricultural vulnerability in intensifying these effects. We find robust evidence of increases in all measures of IPV in response to local precipitation deficits: as unanticipated exposure to days without rain in the previous month rises, more injuries linked to IPV are recorded in the public health system, police reports increase, and more 911 calls related to IPV are made. The effects are stronger in regions highly dependent on agriculture, particularly when the shock occurs during the growing season. In a country where most agricultural income and land are controlled by men, our results align with theoretical predictions from male-backlash IPV models and extractive violence models. We also find that the impact of drought on IPV is more pronounced in municipalities with low state capacity, though potential differences in reporting behavior between IPV measures complicate comparisons. Our findings underscore the need to design gender-sensitive disaster relief policies, strengthen trust in reporting mechanisms and helplines, and reduce the social acceptability of IPV.
dc.format.extent43
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0013368
dc.identifier.urlhttps://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Droughts-and-Domestic-Violence-Measuring-the-Gender-Climate-Nexus.pdf
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherInter-American Development Bank
dc.subjectWomen
dc.subjectDomestic Violence
dc.subjectIntimate Partner Violence
dc.subjectMunicipal Government
dc.subjectDrought
dc.subjectHealth Facilities
dc.subjectAgricultural Production
dc.subjectEconomy
dc.subjectGender
dc.subjectRating
dc.subject.jelcodeI15 - Health and Economic Development
dc.subject.jelcodeJ16 - Economics of Gender • Non-labor Discrimination
dc.subject.jelcodeD13 - Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation
dc.subject.jelcodeQ54 - Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming
dc.subject.keywordsdrought;domestic violence;intimate partner violence;Agriculture
dc.typeWorking Papers
idb.identifier.pubnumberIDB-WP-01653
idb.operationRG-T3729
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