Motherhood and Violence 

New draft!

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is pervasive across countries and especially common among mothers. This paper establishes a causal relationship between motherhood and violence and provides evidence on two channels: (i) that motherhood causes men to exert violence, or (ii) that motherhood makes women more likely to stay with a violent partner. A simple model shows that both channels can increase IPV after motherhood, and they can be empirically disentangled using data that record past violence and separation histories. Using survey data from Mexico with these characteristics, I first document that motherhood is associated with a higher probability of current violence and a lower probability of leaving, but find no relationship between motherhood and men’s violent behavior. Causal evidence also supports the second channel. Using pharmacy openings as a shock to fertility, I find that motherhood increases IPV exposure entirely driven by changes in exit behavior. My results suggest that policies that strengthen women’s control over fertility can reduce IPV by enabling them to leave violent relationships before they are locked in by motherhood.

Property as a Driver of Violence: Evidence from Mexico

Child Penalties in Time Use: A Global Perspective (With Amory Gethin, Camille Landais and Gabriel Leite Mariante)

Structural Transformation and Children Time Use Allocation (With Ameek Singh)