The Causal Impact of Women’s Age at Marriage on Domestic Violence in India
利用印度家庭数据，以初潮年龄为工具变量，发现女性结婚年龄每推迟一年，身体暴力显著减少，但对性暴力或情感暴力无影响，机制是年长新娘受教育程度更高且配偶更受教育。
This study examines the causal effect of women’s age at marriage on prevalence of domestic violence using newly available household data from India. The paper employs an empirical strategy that utilizes variation in age at menarche to obtain exogenous variation in women’s age at marriage. The results show robust evidence that a one-year delay in women’s marriage causes a significant decline in physical violence, although it has no impact on sexual or emotional violence. Further, the study provides suggestive evidence that the effect of women’s marital age on physical violence arises because older brides, as compared to younger brides, are more educated and are married to more educated men. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of better enforcement of existing social policies that seek to delay marriages of women, as well as formulation of newer interventions, to reduce the prevalence of domestic violence in developing countries.HIGHLIGHTS The study examines the causal effect of marital age on exposure to domestic violence.It utilizes recent household data from India.Variation in age at menarche is used to obtain exogenous variation in age at marriage.Results show one-year delay in women's marriage causes a decline in physical violence.The study conducts further analysis to shed light on underlying mechanisms.