Do improved property rights decrease violence against women in India?

Type Thesis or Dissertation - Thesis
Title Do improved property rights decrease violence against women in India?
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
URL http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2504579
Abstract
Using a legal change in inheritance law in India, this paper estimates the effect of women's improved access to inheritance on violence committed against them. I use the staggered implementation of the Hindu Succession Act across states to identify the causal impact of the legislative amendments on police-reported violence against women and on self-reported intimate partner violence. I find a decrease in reported violence following the amendments and this effect is not due to changes in reporting behaviour or a generalised decrease in crime. Further, women eligible to inheritance are 17% less likely to be victims of domestic violence. These findings are explained by an improvement in husbands' behaviour and in marriage market negotiations. I find weak evidence of changes in women's decision-making. This suggests that while inheritance legislation improves women's security, this may not necessarily be due to changes in empowerment.

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