Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: The Determinants of Domestic, A Randomized Control Trial

很大比例的已婚妇女在一生中遭受身体或性暴力；在一些欠发达国家，这一比例可能高达50%。人们对家庭暴力的驱动因素和改变家庭暴力的途径知之甚少。针对妇女的收入支助方案未能减少家庭暴力，在某些情况下，可能导致受害人数暂时增加。这表明，增加妇女收入而不解决家庭暴力的根本原因的干预措施可能会增加暴力。了解是什么驱使虐待配偶及其与收入的复杂关系，对于设计有效的反暴力干预措施和避免对受害者的反弹至关重要；特别是对于那些逃避暴力关系手段有限的贫穷妇女而言。本研究使用现场实验的方法来评估丈夫可能对妻子使用暴力的不同动机的相对重要性，以及为什么低收入丈夫比高收入丈夫使用更多暴力的原因。通过了解家庭暴力发生的原因和方式，这项研究的结果将为制定减少家庭暴力的政策提供重要的投入。该研究项目的结果可能会确立美国在减少家庭暴力方面的全球领先地位。这项研究项目开发并实验测试了一个概念框架，以研究配偶不服从和收入可能引发家庭暴力事件的机制。与现有框架相反，我们假设丈夫因使用暴力而受到损害。这项研究从经济学、心理学和社会学的角度来说明为什么丈夫可能会在偏爱厌恶的情况下使用暴力。这一项目在丈夫考虑使用暴力的情况下产生了随机变化。该项目的主要智力价值有两个：首先，它评估了不同暴力动机-特质暴力、反应性暴力和反应性暴力--的相对重要性。其次，它研究了某些暴力触发因素的作用，如对消费的担忧和对社会形象的担忧。这将使研究人员能够设计有效的干预措施，以减少家庭暴力，直接针对在这种情况下被发现重要的动机和诱因。这项研究的结果有助于研究家庭暴力的方法，并为美国和全球减少家庭暴力的政策提供投入。该研究项目的结果可能会使美国成为减少家庭暴力的全球领导者。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A large proportion of married women suffer physical or sexual violence during their lives; in some less developed countries, the proportion may be as high as 50%. The drivers of domestic violence and pathways to change it is poorly understood. Income support programs targeted towards women have failed to decrease domestic violence and, in some cases, may have led to temporary increases in victimization. This suggests that interventions that increase women's income without addressing the underlying causes of domestic violence might increase violence. Understanding what drives spousal abuse and its complex relationship with income is essential for designing effective anti-violence interventions and to avoid backlash against victims; especially for poor women with limited means to escape violent relationships. This study uses field experimental methods to assess the relative importance of different motives for which husbands might use violence against their wives as well as the reasons why low-income husbands use more violence than high-income husbands. By providing an understanding of why and how domestic violence occurs, the results of this research will provide important inputs in designing policies to reduce domestic violence. The results of the research project could establish the US as the global leader in reducing domestic violence. This research project develops and experimentally test a conceptual framework to study the mechanisms through which spousal disobedience and income might trigger episodes of domestic violence. As opposed to existing framework, we assume that husbands receive disutility from the use of violence. This research draws from economics, psychology, and sociology to show why husbands might use violence despite a preference aversion. This project creates random variation in the conditions under which husbands consider the use of violence. The key intellectual merit of the project is twofold: First, it assesses the relative importance of different motives for violence---idiosyncratic violence, reactive violence, and reaction violence. Second, it studies the role of certain triggers of violence such as consumption concerns, and social image concerns. This will allow researchers to design effective interventions to reduce domestic violence that directly target the motives and triggers that are found to be important in this setting. The results of this research contribute to the methodology of studying domestic violence as well as provide inputs into policies to reduce domestic violence both in the U.S. and globally. The results of the research project could establish the US as the global leader in reducing domestic violence.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.